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THE LIFE 



THOMAS DICKSON 



9i iHemortaL 



SAMUEL C. LOGAN, D. D. 



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SCRANTON, PA., 1888. 



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ifeopjjia 2Dicftj0?Dn €onrcp, 

3[o^cpl) 2&cnjamin SDicft^on, 
and tljeir Cfjiluren, 

IS THIS IMPERFECT MEMORIAL OF THEIR VENERATED FATHER 
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY 

€l)e 3llutl)ot, 

who through many years of personal and pastoral 

association counted it one of his choice privileges 

to be recognized as one of this worthy 

father's personal friends. 

THIS, TOO, 

WITH THE SPECIAL DESIRE THAT THE COVENANT BLESSING 

THAT THOMAS DICKSON INHERITED FROM HIS 

PIOUS ANCESTRY, MAY, 

WITH HIS MANY MANLY AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUES, DESCEND 

TO THEM, AND TO THEIR CHILDREN, TO THE 

REMOTEST GENERATION. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Memorial: Reasons, Objects, and Limitations . i 
I. Nativity, Parentage, Migrations, Early Respon- 
sibilities 6 

II. Education and Educators, Literary Tastes 

AND Pursuits i6 

III. His Organizing Power, Business Enterprise, 

Honorable Success 39 

IV. His Home — Husband — Father — Social Life and 

Humor 62 

V. Religious Faith and its Expression 75 

VI. Declining Health — Travels — Fades Away — 
Passes through the Twilight to the Morn- 
ing 91 

VII. Sympathy of Brotherhood — Flowers Wet with 

Tears 108 

VIII. "At Evening Time it shall be Light" — Christian 
Burial and Christian Tomb — Chaplets for 

THE Worthy Man's Monument 116 

Testimonials : 

1. The Dickson Manufacturing Company .... 133 
II. The First National Bank of Scranton 135 

III. The Moosic Powder Company 136 

IV. The Crown Point Iron Company 138 

V. Delaware and Hudson Canal Company .... 139 

VI. Mutual Life Insurance Company 142 

Closing Words 152 




Ct)e iHemorial 



ITS OBJECTS AND LIMITATIONS. 



I HAVE been requested to write a memorial of 
my departed friend, Mr. Thomas Dickson, which 
shall be especially intended for the use of his family 
and immediate friends. This work I cheerfully un- 
dertake, both out of interest in the living and of love 
for the dead. Mr. Dickson's long identification with 
the great schemes of industry in the Lackawanna 
Valley, and his high character as a citizen, would 
seem to demand that his life should not be permitted 
to pass away from the memory of the world with- 
out some monument commemorative of his work and 
his excellence. When future historians shall seek 



2 Thomas Dickson. 

to trace the history of the industries and record 
the wonderful development of society in the grow- 
ing communities of north-eastern Pennsylvania, no 
doubt some permanent general record will show the 
connection of Mr. Dickson's life and labors with this 
development ; and it is well that material should be 
provided by which such history may be made truthful 
and just. 

It is perhaps impossible for one generation fully 
to apprehend the life, or appreciate the experiences, 
of the generation which precedes it. It is chiefly 
the issues of an active life, with its accomplished 
facts which touch other lives in this world, which may 
be expected to make lasting impressions on succeed- 
ing generations. A man's contemporaries are the 
most capable and appreciative judges of his personal 
character; while an after-generation may perhaps be 
the better judge of his acts, or of the wisdom of his 
plans. It is the memory of the man, not the 
register of his deeds, which is the more precious to 
his friends. The deeds are to them specially valu- 
able only in so far as they perpetuate the picture 
of the man himself It is the husband, the father, 
and friend, who should be embalmed in the deserted 
household and circle of affection. His works and 
activities will be measured by them, and become 
especially precious only in so far as they bring the 
man himself back in his earnest and active life to 
their hearts. 



The Me^norial. 3 

It is, indeed, one of the saddest thoughts of our 
lives here, that we not only pass away from visible 
and conscious contact with the world, which is so 
much to us, but that the very remembrance of us fades 
away from the world's vision, as the morning cloud 
before the dawning of the day. The remembrance 
of many of our acts and plans of life may remain in 
the world after we leave it, especially if their results 
continue to affect other lives. Dim and imperfect 
shadows of ourselves, in conspicuous positions, may 
now and then flash across the path of other seekers 
of position ; we shall probably be lost to sight, even 
before the foot-prints we have made, in crossing the 
stage of action, have become untraceable. Yet it 
is we ourselves who desire to live in the hearts of 
all to whom we have tried to be helpful and true. It 
is what we are, or have tried to be, with all our mis- 
takes and blunders, our imperfections and weak- 
nesses, that we desire should remain in the memory 
and heart of those we leave behind us. 

There are perhaps three separate forces which, 
more than all others, combine to determine the lives 
of such men as Thomas Dickson in this world. The 
influences of each of these forces must be considered 
in any true biography. The first of these is that 
which the Christian must recognize as the work of 
God, manifested in the individual characteristics of 
the soul. There is such a thing as a patent of per- 
sonal origin, which must be carried with us through 



4 Thomas Dickson. 

all life. There are gifts and endowments which 
mark our personality in the great family of God — 
characteristics determined directly by the Creator of 
the individual. The second force is that of one's 
parentage, in which are to be traced the mysterious 
power of blood and the effective forces of the earthly 
origin. The third of these forces are the circum- 
stances of life, especially in its formative stages, and 
in the junctures which bring out and direct its latent 
forces. There is a double relationship of the indi- 
vidual, which will be found to be forceful throughout 
life. This relationship is to one's experiences, and 
circumstances ; by which human action, thought, and 
feeling are so frequently determined. But above 
and beyond all these we shall discover in every man 
who makes a position for himself a distinct person- 
ality — a native manhood, which he has received 
directly from his Maker. In this memorial it is pro- 
posed to keep in view and preserve in their pro- 
portions these controlling influences as they are seen 
to crystallize in the beauty, harmony, and force of a 
useful life. 

The record which is here proposed is simply that 
of a few of the way-marks of an active and useful life 
of three-score years, to the end of giving the man 
himself his true place in the memory of his children. 
So far as it is a record of facts, it will be that of a 
few of the incidents and struggles in a life which was 
conspicuous for its industry and its peacefulness ; for 



The Memorial, 5 

its success and sunshine ; for its public force and its 
private virtues. It was a life of more than ordinary 
excellence in public trusts ; of more than common 
consistency in private virtue, in all its relationships 
and responsibilities. Merely a condensed statement 
of facts, it must be, which are yet well known to his 
friends and associates. 

The proper record of a busy life, of even half a 
century, can only be fully written by him whose 
''book of remembrance" is closed to this world. 

Much less may we attempt to trace the sweep or 
measure the fruits of such a life, with their con- 
tinually acting power. We may perpetuate for a 
time the way-marks of an earthly pilgrimage, and 
note some of the '' foot-prints left on the sands of 
time " before they are forever effaced, and so gather 
lessons for our life and blessing. This is all that is 
here proposed. A simple household memorial of a 
richly endowed and faithful father, who lived for his 
family, under an acknowledged stewardship from 
God. A memorial by which, though dead, he shall 
continue to speak to those that remain and to those 
yet to come. A family tablet it is to be ; set up in 
the deserted home, to perpetuate benedictions of wis- 
dom and love to all the households through which 
his blood shall continue to flow. That tablet reads 

AS FOLLOWS : 




NATIVITY, PARENTAGE, MIGRATION, EARLY 
RESPONSIBILITIES. 



THOMAS DICKSON was born March the 26th, 
A. D. eighteen hundred and twenty-four, at 
the town of Leeds, in England, during a temporary- 
residence of his parents in that place. The family 
home was at Lauder, in Berwickshire, Scotland. But 
for a time, for the purpose of his industry, Mr. 
Dickson's father had taken his family to Leeds, 
without intention of permanent residence, and a 
short time after the birth of Thomas the family re- 
turned to Lauder. Hence Thomas always reckoned 
himself a Scotchman, both geographically and by 
blood. He defended his birthright by asserting that 
if he had been born in a sty it would not make him 



Nativity. 7 

a pig; or, If he had arrived in the world beside a 
mill-pond, and had learned to swim before he mi- 
grated, it could hardly make him a goose. He was 
the first-born child of James Dickson, a millwright 
of Lauder, and of Elizabeth Linen, who was a native 
of the same region. He was a scion of one of those 
Presbyterian families which laid the broad founda- 
tions of the Scottish civilization and greatness. He 
Inherited a name and a blood which is traceable back- 
ward through many generations, and which comes 
to the surface with conspicuous distinctness in the 
special times of exigency and of heroic sacrifice for 
the right, in Scottish history. 

The grandfather of Thomas Dickson, whose name 
he inherited, served his country for twenty years as 
a member of the 92d Regiment of Highlanders. 
This man married at the age of fifteen, and was a 
father at the age of sixteen. This youthful father 
enlisted as a boy, and served heroically In his regi- 
ment throughout the stormy times of the Napoleonic 
conquests. 

For twenty years he marched, fought, and suffered 
with his regiment for his country. He went through 
the Peninsular campaign, when the French, under 
Jerome Bonaparte, were driven out of Spain. He 
stood immovable in the shock of that last charge of 
the French at Waterloo, where Scotch persistency 
became the anchorage of British glory. This Thomas 
Dickson was one of the three men of his company 



8 Thomas Dickson, 

who were found standing, full armed, when that 
charge ended and Napoleon's sun set forever. He 
received from the British Government conspicuous 
medals and military decorations for his valor, upon 
which were inscribed the names of fifty-two battles 
in which he so valiantly fought. These mementos 
of heroic services were inherited by his son James, 
who was only sixteen years younger than himself, 
and who was Thomas Dickson's father. They are 
still in the possession of the family, an heirloom of 
which any family may be proud. 

James Dickson, the son of the soldier, and the 
worthy millwright of Lauder, was trained by his 
young mother, and was a man of decided religious 
convictions. He, with his excellent wife, early iden- 
tified himself with the Presbyterian Church, of which, 
during the latter half of his life, he was an efficient 
ruling elder. He was a man of great patience and 
industry, of carefulness and simple tastes. When 
old age compelled his retirement from business, he 
spent much of his time in writing short sermons, 
modeled after the general style of the Scottish 
divines. With these discourses he entertained his 
friends and family, and made them useful in the ab- 
sence of his pastor in the social meetings of the 
church. 

In the year 1832 James Dickson made up his 
mind to try his fortunes in the New World. Breaking 
the ties which bound his family to their native 



Nativity, 9 

heather, he embarked, in company with his wife's 
brother, John Linen, who was a successful artist, in a 
sailing vessel from the port of Glasgow. These 
men sailed from Scotland with little expectation of 
ever being permitted to return. They took with 
them their families and all their effects. Dickson 
and his wife were blessed with six healthy children, 
of whom Thomas was the oldest, then a lad of nine 
years. They were more than nine weeks tossing 
through a stormy passage, driven by adverse winds. 
The perils and discomforts of this voyage made a 
permanent impression upon the mind of the young 
lad Thomas. In the later years of his life he was 
accustomed to tell the story of the family migration 
with a pathos which touched the heart and drew tears 
from the eyes of his auditors. For more than two 
months they were tossed, and suffered, on the bois- 
terous ocean, and at the end of that time they an- 
chored in the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Here the 
families were transferred to bateaux, with a whole 
company of emigrants, in which they were towed up 
the current of the great river by oxen walking on 
the banks. In this voyage of the migration the 
boy Thomas learned a lesson of patience, persever- 
ance, and endurance under difficulties, which fitted 
him for the experiences of a pioneer life, which he 
was so early to encounter. The sorrows of this 
voyage up the St. Lawrence were greatly increased 
by an attack upon Thomas of the cholera, which for 



lo Thomas Dickson, 

the first time appeared in America in that summer 
of 1832. 

James Dickson stopped with his family at Toronto, 
and attempted to follow the business of his trade. 
But the country was so new, the settlements so 
sparse, and the machinery so rude and imperfect, 
that there was little prospect of either brilliant or 
permanent success. He struggled hard to get a 
foot-hold, but grew discouraged with the prospect; 
and at length, in 1834, followed his friend and rela- 
tive, George Linen, who had migrated the year fol- 
lowing that of his brother, to Dundaff, which was a 
new settlement at the foot of Elk Mountain, in north- 
eastern Pennsylvania. Here Mr. Dickson placed his 
family on a farm, where the two friends very soon 
demonstrated that the artist and millwright were but 
poor material to convert into farmers. Early dis- 
covering that he could not hope to be a successful 
farmer, Mr. Dickson abruptly left the whole farm 
venture in the care of his young son Thomas and his 
mother, while he ventured to New- York in search 
for employment as a mechanic. Here he found work 
which speedily developed into a hopeful opening, 
by reason of the unusual demand for the work of 
mechanics which was consequent upon the great fire 
of 1835. Here James Dickson spent two winters, 
with their intervening summer, in successful work ; 
at the end of which time he returned to Dundaff, with 
the intention of taking his family with him to settle 



Nativity. 1 1 

in the city. But while he tarried with his family in 
the visitation of his old friends at Carbondale, he 
became acquainted with the president and other offi- 
cers of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. 

This company had been organized in 1824 — the 
year of Thomas Dickson's birth — in the city of New- 
York. It was organized especially for the mining 
and transportation of coal, with its offices in the city 
of New-York, while the point of its operations was 
at and about Carbondale, in the Lackawanna Valley. 
Up to the time of Mr. Dickson's acquaintance with it, 
all the machinery of this company, except that which 
lifted cars up the planes upon a horse-railway, had 
been operated by water-power, and it labored under 
all the difficulties of the undeveloped coal enterprise 
of that day. 

The attention of the president of this company 
was called to Mr. Dickson, because of his being a 
skilled millwright, with his family already in the field 
of operations. As soon as his skill was known, 
Mr. Dickson was offered the position of mechanic 
among the water-wheels and in the rude shops 
of the company. Hence in the spring of 1836 he 
accepted employment in this capacity, and moved 
his family from Dundaff to Carbondale. Here he 
entered permanently the service of the Delaware and 
Hudson Canal Company, and by his skill and sound 
judgment he soon won the position of master me- 
chanic. This position he held with honor, and pros- 



12 Thomas Dickson, 

ecuted its enlarging work with decided success. 
And even when old age had set him aside from 
active duty, he was retained in his honorable position 
until the year of his death, in 1880. In this worthy 
position, James Dickson was permitted to support 
his family and educate his successful sons and daugh- 
ters. Throughout his life he illustrated, in the com- 
munity, the excellencies of a consistent Christian 
character. 

James Dickson's wife, Elizabeth Linen, was the 
master-spirit and formative power in the household. 
She was a woman of more than ordinary natural 
endowments, which prepared her for every exigency. 
The family after their migration were subjected to 
great trials and reduced to a very narrow margin in 
daily life. But Mrs. Dickson, burdened with the 
care of her six small children, never lost heart, hope, 
or patience. She took charge of the whole house- 
hold, after the style of the '* guid Scotch wife." Her 
husband regularly intrusted her with his wages, and 
she applied them with great wisdom for the support 
of the family. James Dickson fully appreciated his 
wife, and was as one of his own children in all mat- 
ters of the household. His wife purchased for him 
his clothes, as she did that of her children, and 
directed his holidays' expenditures, what few he had. 
She, by her genius and spirit, ordered the household 
so that it was full of love and cheerfulness, with all 
its burdens and anxieties. With persevering econ- 



Nativity, 1 3 

omy and endless labor, she clothed her family, so 
that her children might lift up their heads with the 
best of the community. Crowded in the little cabin, 
she might have been seen, almost any night, with an 
umbrella spread over her to hide the light from the 
eyes of her sleeping husband and children, while she 
cut and patched and altered the garments of her 
children, asleep all about her. To the best natural 
gifts this woman added the most lovely Christian 
spirit, and was possessed of the best education of the 
times. She lived to see her sons and daughters 
more than ordinarily successful in life, and died 
leaving a whole community to mourn her departure 
and to remember her virtues. 

During the hard winter which succeeded James 
Dickson's departure to New- York from Dundaff, the 
farm he had rented was left, as has been said, in the 
care of Thomas and his mother ; and during this 
winter Thomas developed many characteristics which 
followed him through life — characteristics which ena- 
bled him to make friends of all classes of men. He 
used, after he had reached his great success in busi- 
ness, to tell of his schemes and trials when snowed 
in among the hills of Dundaff with his beloved 
mother and her family of bairns, as he was accus- 
tomed to call them, with small supplies and none to 
help them. With the vivacity and sparkle that 
always filled his auditors with laughter, he gave 
descriptions and accounts of his experiences and suf- 



14 Thomas Dickson, 

ferings, which made, as he said, the winter full twelve 
months long. His greatest difficulty was to find 
suitable wood in that dense forest to keep the cabin 
warm enough to avoid freezing. The snow had a 
power of penetration which, he said, would hunt out 
the baby through every crack. He said that he and 
his mother at least ''were kept in a sweat all winter." 
The pictures he drew of himself clothed in the 
garments which his father had left behind him, and 
which his mother persuaded him he would speedily 
fill with a full-rounded manhood, were unique. With 
pantaloons drawn up to his armpits, and rolled up 
at the bottom to keep them from entangling his feet, 
and a coat whose skirts were more dangerous than 
the legs of the pants he wore, he toiled day after day, 
with a yoke of oxen to snake the logs from the forest 
for fire- wood. With all his industry and persever- 
ance he found that his work was only fairly begun 
when he had brought the logs to the cabin door. 
He was consequently led to conclude that a success- 
ful worker must be one who can set others to w^ork, 
and legitimately use their more abundance of power 
to supplement his own energies. He concluded that 
he had better use his wits as well as his muscle, or 
else he might awake some morning to find his pre- 
cious charge frozen stiff. Hence he went to an old 
merchant of Dundaff, Charles Welles by name, and 
told the story of his trials, his perplexities and fail- 
ures, and asked for a loan of a few dollars to help 



Nativity, 1 5 

him **out of the woods." The old merchant became 
interested in the spirit and story of the boy, and fur- 
nished him with excellent advice as well as the funds 
to help him secure wood-choppers to prepare the 
wood for the family's use. Thomas, instead of 
attempting to hire wood-choppers, spent all his 
money for the best Scotch whisky, and invited the 
whole neighborhood to a chopping-bee. The neigh- 
bors gathered from far and near, and in one day 
this boy of less than twelve years solved the almost 
hopeless problem, and provided the household with 
an excellent supply of winter fuel. This, his first 
venture in business, gave him a key to the steward- 
ship of a successful business life. To bind his fel- 
lows to himself and to his schemes of industry, by 
genial fellowship and good cheer, became the plan 
of his working ; and no man ever carried out greater 
plans of industry with more real satisfaction to those 
who became identified with him, or were employed 
as his willing helpers. 




^^^^ 





II. 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS LITERARY TASTES 

AND PURSUITS. 



OF the education of Thomas Dickson, technically 
speaking, very little can be said. He was 
not what we should be willing to call **a self-made 
man," as that phrase is usually employed. He was 
too good and great to be placed for a moment in 
that class of men whose usual boast is that they are 
"self-made." We should much prefer to call him a 
home-made man of the very best style. He was 
the product of a worthy Christian household and of 
a parental training of the best order. 

It would be very difficult for his children, and cer- 
tainly impossible for his grandchildren, to reach any 
adequate conception of the conditions of the plo- 



Education a7id Educators. 1 7 

neer life to which his childhood and youth were sub- 
jected. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for 
this oreneration to form a true measurement of what 
are generally called the educational privileges under 
which he pressed his way to manhood and marked 
out the path of his life. 

The pioneers who hewed down the forests, and laid 
the foundations of a country that in a single genera- 
tion has leaped to the front in the march of a world's 
civilization, almost without exception, were believers 
in the power and necessity of Christian education, as 
the efficient factor of a free people. Their first 
work, after the establishing of their own rude homes 
in the wilderness, was the building of the school- 
house and the house of worship. But the means at 
their command and the conveniences within their 
reach were so limited, that it was generally at the 
sacrifice of the educational interests of the first gen- 
eration that respectable schools were established in 
any community. 

Teachers who were really qualified to conduct a 
school were very few, and hard to obtain ; while the 
compensation of such teachers was so meager that 
they were compelled to spend the summer months in 
other business, so as to gather a sufficient living to 
enable them to teach throuo^h the winter. The 
school-teachers of the first third of the present cent- 
ury, especially outside of New England, were mostly 
Protestant Irishmen. They were men whose chief 



1 8 Thomas Dickson. 

ideas of training young minds revolved about a 
narrow theory of strict discipline, and the various 
relations of "superiors, inferiors, and equals," as 
suggested by the Heidelberg or Westminster Cate- 
chisms. The common school was a little kingdom, 
of which the teacher was the king; and his chief 
work was that of government. Unless the boys 
and girls were taken up by the pastor, as a work of 
love and Christian duty, their education must be 
limited to the merest rudiments of what was called 
an English education. The books and appliances 
for the convenience of teachers were as angular and 
inferior, in general, as were the teachers themselves. 
A sketch of the school in actual session will, per- 
haps, give us a clearer estimate of the value of 
school privileges, as they were enjoyed by the boys 
of the generation to which Mr. Dickson belonged. 
Here it is. Suppose a log-cabin twenty by thirty 
feet, with one log cut out for the greater part of 
its length, on the side opposite to the door. The 
vacancy thus made was closed to the weather, first 
by greased paper, and then, as the arts of life 
advanced, by single panes of glass, set up side by 
side, to admit the light. This was the window of 
the school-house. A long board, resting upon pins 
driven into the wall at an angle of forty-five degrees, 
formed a writing-desk; and a slab, perched upon 
legs three feet long, which forbade the possibility of 
the urchins' feet touching the floor, constituted the 



Education a7id Educators. 19 

preparations for learning to write. Upon this long 
bench the chickens of the community, great and 
small, were perched, and learned to use the quill of 
the goose. The work of the first winter was gener- 
ally confined to the mere scratching of what were 
called '^ pot-hooks," or imitations of the curves of 
the iron hooks hanging upon the cranes of their 
mothers' kitchens. A box stove, with an open oven, 
which was chiefly convenient for the roasting of 
apples,^occupied the center of the room. This luxu- 
rious heater was usually filled with green wood, from 
the forest, that could only with persistent coaxing be 
induced to burn, and had its smoke-pipe running out 
through the roof in such a way as to be dependent 
upon the wind to .determine whether the smoke 
should pass up or down. An elevated desk, or 
throne, for the use of the teacher, was placed at the 
end of the room, and slabs on short legs filled the 
remainder of the floor. Here sat the pupils in long 
rows, graded according to degrees of progress, social 
status, or length of limbs ; but generally all seated 
so high as to be allowed full room for the swinging 
of their feet, by which they kept time with their puz- 
zled thoughts, and rendered tolerable, by constant 
exercise, the sedentary life to which they were com- 
pelled. The first and second rows of these urchins 
flourish in their hands, or hold before their faces, 
shingles which are carved into paddles of various 
patterns, on one side of which are the letters of the 



20 Thomas Dickson, 

alphabet, and the combination of these letters in 
square onion-beds of '*a-babs"; on the other the 
mysteries of mathematics which are crystalHzed in 
the multipHcation-table, and in the various tables of 
measure, both ''liquid" and "dry." These were 
their books, or literary works, containing the rudi- 
ments of knowledge, and were usually provided by 
the pen of the teacher. Next to these sat the row 
of those in the second class, holding well-thumbed 
spelling-books, which were the contribution to the 
world's life and advancement made by Dillworth 
and Webster. Next to these the reading-classes, 
who are poring over appointed tasks in the '* Eng- 
lish Reader," which is a book made up of extracts 
from the works of the English masters in prose and 
poetry. Along with these are reading-classes in 
the Old and New Testaments. These constitute all 
the reading-books known to the community which 
may be useful to the school. ''Pike's Arithmetic," with 
its teaching all shackled with "pounds, shillings, and 
pence," with the treatise on prosody which they 
called "grammar," which was relegated to the ap- 
pendix of the spelling-book, constitute the sum of 
the helps for the highest education proposed. 

Such was the school of 1830 among the mount- 
ains and in the valley about Carbondale. A higher 
education than could be afforded by such a school 
could be found only at great expense or else through 
the self-denial of ministers and missionaries who 



Education and Educators. 21 

selected special pupils for private and classic tuition, 
and at their own cost usually prepared them for 
college. 

When the Dickson family were safely housed in 
their home of two rooms and a kitchen in Carbon- 
dale, and the father had found steady work among 
the water-wheels and lifting-sweeps of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company, it was at once decided 
that Thomas should take up the broken threads of 
his education, which hitherto had been running en- 
tirely between himself and his beloved mother. She 
was more proud of her boy and of his capabilities 
than she was of his advancement in book knowledge. 
She had done the best she could for him in her 
teaching, but she earnestly coveted for him a gener- 
ous education. It was therefore determined to place 
him in the village school. It was the best the 
town could afford for the boys. It was taught by 
an Irishman by the name of John Welch. A regu- 
lar knight of the rod he was, perpetually burdened 
with the cares of government, in his little common- 
wealth. 

There were two characteristics of the boy Thomas 
which were inwoven with the texture of his being — 
characteristics which could be neither eliminated nor 
hidden throughout a long life. The first of these 
was an innate love of fun, absolutely irrepressible; 
the other a love of justice, honesty, and fair dealing 
under all circumstances. These peculiarities were 



22 Thomas Dickson. 

as strong in the child as they ever were in the man, 
and they carried a beautiful array of virtues along 
with them in all his life. For the enjoyment of his 
fun he was ready to turn the house upside down at 
any time. He was always ready to get his fellows 
into all kinds of difficulties ; but then he stepped up 
like a man, and either laughed the government out 
of its judicial severity, or took the punishment due for 
transgression for the whole lot, if need required, 
without flinching. By his own confession he usually 
paid the score of all the poor sinners whom he 
had inveigled into transgression. Thomas asserted 
through after life, in his joking way, that he had 
taken the chastisement for all his brothers and sisters 
as a household duty, and had thus been the means 
of their best education. But all dishonest shirking 
and falsehood he abhorred. He was neither guilty 
of it himself nor would he ever suffer it in others, if 
he could help it. These two peculiarities were the 
means of cutting short his education in the Irish 
academy of the executive Welch. He had been in 
school but a few weeks, exploring the mysteries of 
'* Pike's Arithmetic," when he came into collision most 
unexpectedly with the powers that were. It was 
after this manner. The pupils were gathered about 
the stove, with its enormous burden of green wood, 
each trying to extract enough of heat to satisfy his 
toes, or at least melt the snow from his shoes, when 
a boy at the end of the row, led by the spirit of mis- 



Education and Educators. 23 

chief which was well known to dwell in the Scotch 
lad, brought his weight suddenly against this row of 
small ''bricks," just for the fun of seeing them tumble 
over each other, and so demonstrate the law of the 
resistance of solids and the accurate relations of 
force and momentum. 

Thomas was immediately called to the teacher's 
bar of justice and charged with this crime, of which 
he was himself one of the victims. He was ordered 
to hold out his hand for punishment for this dis- 
orderly conduct. Thomas denied the charge with a 
hot indignation, which was greatly increased by the 
fact that the real culprit was a favorite of the teacher, 
and one who, by his silence, proposed to allow the 
innocent to suffer. He refused to submit to the un- 
just discipline, and immediately showed the teacher 
a clean pair of heels. Around and around the stove 
and over the benches ran the fugitive from justice, 
with the wand of punishment flourishing behind him 
in the hand of the irate master. Thomas discovered 
that the tongs have entire advantage over the com- 
passes by their length of limb, and hence that the 
master was gaining upon the culprit as the race con- 
tinued. But as he passed the teachers desk he 
snatched up his inkstand and hurled it with precision, 
and telling force, at the teacher's head, and then shot 
out of the school-house door. Thus he graduated, 
or at least completed the assigned curriculum of his 
school education. 



24 Thomas Dickson, 

He went home immediately and reported the 
whole state of the case to his father, who advised 
him to return and apologize for his rebellion to his 
teacher, and take his punishment like a man. This 
he refused absolutely to do, upon the assertion that 
it was a demand to submit to an injustice, which he 
never could consent to endure. His father then 
hastily told him if he could not reconcile himself to 
his teacher he must go to work. He accepted the 
alternative with unexpected promptness, and set out 
to find a job, at once determined to start upon the 
highway of life for himself He applied to one 
George A. Whiting for a position, expressing his 
willingness to try his hand at anything. Mr. Whiting 
was connected with the coal-works of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company, and at once became 
interested in the spirit and energy of the boy. He 
gave him the job of driving the very large mule 
harnessed at the sweep, and used for lifting coal out 
of the mine. The superintendent furnished him with 
this large, headstrong beast, and told him to go and 
try his hand. The little fellow mounted the animal's 
back to ride him down to the sweep, where his daily 
task was appointed, but the mule rebelled ; and after 
various gyrations going about half-way to the sweep, 
having, perhaps, carefully considered the weight of 
the governing power having hold of the reins, he 
turned himself about and brought the boy back to 
the store ; much to his own chagrin, and to the 



Ed2icatio7i and Educators, 25 

amusement of the men and boys who had gathered 
to see the contest at the entrance of the young man 
on the business of life. But by persistence and pluck 
Thomas succeeded in mastering the unruly force 
which was put under his charge, and brought his 
living engine to a faithful duty at the mines. Here 
he began his business life, which was ultimately to 
win for him his high position. 

From the time young Dickson so rashly left the 
school his education was chiefly in his own hands. 
It was in no sense the result of his want of interest 
in books, or of an appreciation of the best school 
education, that he had turned his back upon the 
village school. Doubtless a respectable compromise 
could have been secured with this teacher who had 
outraged his sense of justice, and the popularity of 
the lad in the community would have given him the 
best position in the school itself It was rather due 
to the awakening of the young manhood in him, 
which suggested independent action for his own self- 
support. 

From childhood he had manifested a taste for 
study and a longing for books. He had read every- 
thing his parents possessed ; but the desire to work 
his own way, or "• to paddle his own canoe," as he 
expressed it, and to relieve his overtaxed parents of 
any further care either for his support or education, 
led him to accept at once his father's offer of the 
alternative that if he would not return to school 



26 Thomas Dickson, 

he should go to work. This proposal of his father 
was doubtless made without thought of the possibility 
of his accepting it, and with the expectation that he 
would oro back to school. But the alternative of 
school, with submission to a teacher for whom he 
had lost respect, or work and wages under his own 
control, however hard the one or limited the other, 
to such a boy as he was, brought the issue and 
decision which no one who knew him in after life 
could have failed to expect. 

We are not to suppose that Thomas threw away 
all privileges of education when he harnessed himself 
to the mine-sweep with its unruly beast, to become ''a 
mule-driver at the mines," and so set up for himself 
He was born with a love of books, and read every- 
thing within his reach. After he had settled himself 
as salesman in a store of promiscuous merchandise, 
one Silas S. Benedict came to Carbondale, and 
proved himself an excellent teacher. He greatly 
quickened the interest of the young people in books 
and in the search for knowledge ; and Thomas for 
a time placed himself under this teacher's private 
tuition. Here he made rapid advancement, and 
remained long enough to become a leader in the 
public exhibitions of the young people of the village, 
by which Mr. Benedict stimulated the progress of 
his pupils in literary composition, in declamation, 
and in public debate. Here Thomas gained his first 
laurels in a literary way. 



Education and Educators, 27 

At this period a scheme for the education of young 
men became general In the country in the way of 
literary societies and debating clubs. By these vil- 
lage and neighborhood societies many a young man, 
on the frontier, prepared himself for usefulness and 
success in public life. It was in such a club that 
Abraham Lincoln found one of his great educators. 
Young Dickson became one of the leaders that 
organized such a society in Carbondale, and in it he 
found great help toward the development of his 
mental resources. Once a week the young men 
gathered together, declaimed speeches, read essays, 
and debated the questions of public interest of all 
sorts. Occasionally the doors of the club were 
thrown open to the public for the double purpose of 
testing the mettle of the performers and of culti- 
vating the good-will of the people. With these liter- 
ary societies were often connected public spelling- 
matches and reading associations, when the people 
gathered to witness the progress, and enjoy the pro- 
miscuous contests, of the young people In their efforts 
to educate themselves. Then, for the education and 
exercise of the social life of the young people, sing- 
ing-schools were appointed and encouraged, which 
opened a free field for the conquest of hearts, and for 
the tuning of the young gentlemen and young ladies 
for the march of life together. It was in these liter- 
ary and social associations that Thomas Dickson 
laid the broad foundations for the successful and use- 



28 Thomas Dickson, 

ful life which he lived, and for the holding of his 
leading position among his fellows. 

The effect of this training was evident in the inter- 
est which he in all his life manifested in books and 
libraries. As soon as, in the advancement of his life, 
he had entered into business with Mr. Benjamin as a 
partner in that promiscuous store, which included 
both an iron foundry and a drug department, this 
young man, at his own expense, gathered books to 
form a circulating library. These books he placed 
in his drug store, and for a small fee he loaned them 
to be read and returned. The fees for the reading 
were applied to the payment for the books, and then 
to the purchase of new books as the plan succeeded. 
This library he kept in Carbondale as long as he 
was in business there, and it proved a benefaction 
to the whole settlement. Thus his interest in the 
advancement and well-being of the people began 
very early in life, and it continued without abate- 
ment throughout his career. Along with the good 
accomplished among his associates, male and female, 
by cultivating in them a taste for reading, and so 
manifestly in lifting up society in a new settlement, 
it must not be forgotten that he secured direct advan- 
tage to himself. Pushed out in life with no more 
education than his hard-working father and over- 
worked mother could give him, his thirst for that 
knowledge which could only be found in books, was 
awakened, In good measure, by the position of lead- 



Education and Educators. 29 

ership in the young society to which his popular 
characteristics pushed him. 

He seemed to possess an innate love of poetry, and 
very early became familiar with the Scottish bards, 
whose songs he had learned from his mother and 
which he carried with him through life. He was 
equally captivated by the heroic in the history of his 
native land. Hence, by the enterprise of his circu- 
lating library, by which he proposed to make the 
readers pay for the books by small installments, he 
increased his own store of knowledge, and thus be- 
came a rapid and careful reader. In time he became 
a sort of extemporaneous encyclopedia of such poets 
as Ramsay, Tom Moore, and Burns, as well as of 
the masterly stories of Scott, the letters of Addison, 
and essays of Charles Lamb. His love of declama- 
tion led him from these to the pages of Shakspere, 
until, as he often told me, his love of books had been 
a snare to him all his life. He had to resist this love 
of reading to prevent its interference with his duties 
in business trusts and responsibilities. He often said 
to his friends, after he had passed the meridian of his 
life, that he believed he ought to have been a literary 
man ; and he never ceased to express his regret 
that he had been denied the privilege of a classic 
education. 

Soon after he removed from Carbondale, leaving 
his circulating library, and had come to Scranton to 
enter upon his great business enterprise, he began 



30 Thomas Dickson. 

systematically to collect books for a library for him- 
self and his family. Keeping a strict account of his 
income and expenses, he systematically devoted a 
certain amount yearly to the purchase of books, and 
tried to read them as fast as he was able to place 
them in his library. In this work he succeeded until 
his prosperity and his enlarged business responsibili- 
ties both gave him a greater number of books than he 
could possibly master, and allowed him less time to 
read them. For many years he ** limited himself," as 
he called it, to the expenditure of $500 a year for the 
purchase of new books. He was accustomed to ex- 
cuse himself to his cheerful wife for what might seem 
to her an extravagance in this direction, by saying that 
as he neither spent money for drink nor beastly pleas- 
ure, he thought she ought to allow him this decent 
folly ; which, of course, she was always too happy to 
do. His collection of books, of the first order, con- 
tinued as long as he lived. In time he built a beau- 
tiful room for these books, which opened from the 
family sitting-room in his homestead in Scranton, 
and filled it with the choicest works in the English 
language, on all subjects. Gradually this library 
overflowed until the family room had all its vacant 
spaces around the walls occupied with standard 
works. A few years before his death Mr. Dickson 
had his library conveniently catalogued, and left 
more than six thousand volumes to his estate worthy 
of a place in any library. It was generally believed 



Education a7id Educators. 31 

to be the best private library within the State of 
Pennsylvania, and he enjoyed and used its treasures 
as long as he lived. 

His literary efforts, in a limited way, began quite 
early. Among the associates of his youth Thomas 
Dickson frequently appeared before a limited public 
in addresses upon occasion of public celebrations, 
and especially before benevolent associations, of which 
he early became the master-spirit. He took special 
interest in the organization of these benevolent so- 
cieties, both because of their charitable and social 
benefits among the young men of the community. 
He was particularly interested in the Caledonian 
societies, and, as long as he lived, took part in the 
celebration of the natal day of their favorite poet, 
Robert Burns. 

His speeches on these occasions were received 
with great gratification, due in some measure, per- 
haps, to his individual popularity, but more especially 
because they were generally spiced with his spark- 
ling vivacity and fun, which bubbled up and ran in a 
perpetual overflow from the exuberance of his daily 
life. In his contact with the world and associations 
in life, to tease and perpetrate practical jokes upon 
all whom he liked seemed to give zest to his very 
existence; and this disposition continued with him 
under all vicissitudes. As long as he lived his buoy- 
ancy of spirit never failed him. His sparkling wit 
and quiet humor were as constant as his daily bread. 



32 Thomas Dickson, 

In his social intercourse with all classes he always 
found it necessary to have some one to tease, whether 
in his office, in the shop, or at his home. 

His love of letters, and especially of poetry, was 
illustrated by a habit which his wife testifies he fol- 
lowed all the years of his married life. As soon as he 
arose in the morning and had performed his morning 
ablutions, he began to recite speeches or to repeat 
poetry aloud. He walked the floor of his room as he 
repeated song after song, stopping now and then to 
fire some quizzing question, or some startling remark, 
for the entertainment of his wife, whom he equally 
delighted to puzzle and cheer. ''Lalla Rookh," 
''Tam o' Shanters Mare," ''The Lady of the Lake," 
''The Cotters Saturday Night," "The Relief of 
Lucknow," and a dozen more of what he deemed the 
masterpieces of poetry kept constant company with 
him in his bed-chamber. His beloved wife has said 
that she hardly recalls a morning of their home life 
when he did not greet the coming day with some 
verses or standard speeches. Generally he timed 
his dressing with the length of the recitation he 
happened to have in hand. Many a time his "guid 
wife," as he called her, would have to warn him that 
his cakes were growing cold while he was in the 
middle of his favorite recitation of Burns's " Land o' 
Cakes" or of the " Auld Meal Mill." 

Mr. Dickson's temptation to the perpetration of 
practical jokes or to tease his best friends had many 



Education and Educators. 



OJ 



Illustrations. They were never done in ill-nature, 
nor were any persons ever chosen his subjects for 
fun that did not possess his confidence and affection. 
Two weeks before his death he gave assurance to 
the writer of this memorial, in accounting for the 
many practical jokes in which he had victimized the 
friend he called his pastor, that these were only the 
foolish expressions and assurances of his love ; for 

HE NEVER JOKED WITH THOSE THAT HE DID NOT 
PROFOUNDLY RESPECT. 

We will record one illustration of this disposition 
to enjoy the discomfiture of his friends at the expense 
of his fun, and it will be one in the literary line. 

Soon after Mr. Dickson became known as a public 
talker and a lover of books, he was invited to follow 
with a patriotic address a particular friend in a Fourth 
of July celebration in the town of Montrose, Pa. 

His friend, afterward General Mylert, had then 
quite a reputation as a speaker, and was expected 
to deliver the principal oration. He had prepared 
himself accordingly, and had the full manuscript of 
his speech in his pocket. The two friends traveled 
up the mountain together on the day appointed. On 
the way Dickson noticed the roll of paper protruding 
from his friend's pocket, and, suspecting what it might 
be, he quietly transferred it to his own. While they 
rested at the hotel and waited for lunch, he hastily 
looked over the speech and said he liked it. When 
the public exercises began, he sat solemnly by the 



34 Thomas Dickson, 

side of his friend on the platform, who had no sus- 
picion but that his manuscript was where he could 
lay his hand upon it as soon as he should need it. 
In due time he arose and began his oration. After 
a few sentences spoken, he began to feel for his 
paper, and found it was not in any of his pockets. 
Supposing that either he had forgotten it at home, 
or else that it had fallen out by the way, he boldly 
struck out independently, and brought out all his 
latent resources, with blunder and extemporary fer- 
vor. The embryo soldier and worthy patriot soon 
found himself independent of all manuscript, and 
carried the crowd with him, and so triumphed by his 
very misfortune. After he was through, Dickson 
was introduced to give the afterpiece in the patriotic 
celebration. He arose, and with all the solemnity 
of his father-in-law. Deacon Marvine, and after the 
general style of that worthy, he drew the manuscript 
from his pocket and read with great unction and 
solemn earnestness the speech of his friend. His 
style was so natural, and became so thoroughly 
Dickson as he proceeded, without any reference to 
the author, that he had given a considerable portion 
of the speech before his friend detected his own 
thought in the composition. It was so boldly and 
cleverly done that his friend joined in the hearty 
cheers with which the oration was greeted, and they 
returned home together, splitting their sides with 
laughter. 




THOS. DICKSON. 

1857. 



Edttcation and Educators. 35 

Throughout life Mr. Dickson was a student of 
men and of principles, rather than of books. He 
treated those with whom he was connected in busi- 
ness or In social life as equals and associates, and he 
soon learned each one's personal peculiarities. His 
perceptions were quick and clear, and his judgments 
apparently without prejudice. The ability to weigh 
evidence and to balance probabilities on different 
sides of a business proposition, was unconsciously 
lost sight of by those who were his associates ; and 
perhaps was lost sight of by himself, in the readiness 
with which he reached his conclusions, in the clear- 
ness with which he announced them, or in the pleas- 
ant pertinacity with which he stuck to them after 
their announcement. 

In the matter of writing papers he mastered the 
art of dictation. He used an amanuensis, and mani- 
fested a great ability to express all that he desired 
to express without the use of pen or pencil. His 
power of concentration in composition was remark- 
able. He could dictate letters and legal papers, 
apparently without previous arrangement or con- 
sideration, and sometimes carried on half a dozen 
subjects at the same time without breaking the con- 
tinuity of thought. He was never known to make 
any study of the law. Perhaps he never read 
"Blackstone" in his life. But he possessed a legal 
ability, which he cultivated in his work, that was 
recognized by his associates as truly remarkable in 



^6 Tho77tas Dickson, 

his handling the immense business interests com- 
mitted to him. He drew the most complex legal 
papers in which were involved the interests both of 
the "Dickson Manufacturing" and the '* Delaware 
and Hudson " companies ; including deeds for very 
large amounts of real estate, and contracts embrac- 
ing millions of dollars. He was accustomed to dic- 
tate these papers with a comprehensive grasp and 
accuracy, and with a technical legal expression, which 
the best lawyers seldom attempted to modify. It 
was perhaps this ability to draw legal papers without 
the use of books, or the aid of learned counsel, which 
made the deepest impression of his great powers 
upon his associates in business. There were con- 
stant speculations among the higher circles of pro- 
fessional men touching this peculiar ability; as to 
whether it were a natural gift or a result of cultiva- 
tion. His native honesty and his high sense of 
justice, between man and man, no doubt gave him 
clearness of perception in this direction. It was very 
seldom indeed that his embodiment of a business 
transaction did not entirely satisfy the parties in- 
volved, as well as stand the test of legal investiga- 
tion. One of the best lawyers at the bar of Lacka- 
wanna County was accustomed to say that Dickson's 
legal papers were as good as he himself could draw. 
Mr. Dickson's life was too busy to permit him to 
give his attention to that which he thought was the 
one bent of his mind, which was original investiga- 



Educatio7t and Educators, 37 

tion and literary composition. He said to the writer 
of this, in the later days of his career, that he had 
wasted his life, wishing and intending to write some- 
thinor that would live ; but he never found the time 
to begin. While making a tour of the world he 
wrote a series of letters, which covered the impres- 
sions and observations of his wanderings ; but these 
letters were all directed to members of the family, 
and were evidently not intended for publication. 
After his return home he prepared a few lectures on 
the different countries through which he had trav- 
eled, and upon invitation he delivered them publicly 
in a number of places. But these were always given 
on behalf of some benevolent cause, and generally 
on behalf of the Young Men's Christian Association 
in which he was constantly interested, and to which 
he was a most generous contributor. He never 
failed to gather a full house, or to entertain his audi- 
ence ; but it was generally thought that the attrac- 
tion was the man rather than his lectures. He 
himself found that in order to instruct and entertain 
a promiscuous public, a study and practice were 
required which he could not undertake, and that 
possibly it required a talent which he did not pos- 
sess. He was always most at home in the social 
circle of literary friends, and in this he was the 
most entertaining and instructive. 

This much I have recorded of the book education 
and the literary taste of this worthy man of remark- 



38 Thomas Dickso7i, 

able powers, as well as of conspicuous success. 
Thomas Dickson was never as strong or electric in 
his literary composition as he was in his extempore 
conversation. It was when his mind came in con- 
tact or in collision with other great minds that he 
sparkled and showed his really fascinating powers. 




III. 



HIS ORGANIZING POWER BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 

HONORABLE SUCCESS. 



FROM the day that the boy Thomas mounted 
that unruly mule, whose mastery he had to 
make two attempts to establish before he succeeded 
in bringing him to his work at the mine-sweep, he 
entered upon his business career. He was small for 
his age ; but his sprightliness, his neatness of habit, 
and his general good behavior had made him a gen- 
eral favorite in the village. As soon as it became 
known that he had left school and was looking for 
work, the best people of his acquaintance in the 
community became interested in his behalf His 
first application was to the mine superintendent, 
very naturally, and he was successful in obtain- 



39 



40 Thomas Dickson, 

ing the only situation that could be given him at 
the time. He was, however, allowed to fill it for 
only about a week or ten days. Business men 
thought it a shame, or rather a waste of human 
resources, to keep such a boy guiding a beast, to 
draw coal by the bucketful from the mines. It was 
the performance of this work for a week, or ten 
days, which followed him all his life in the statement, 
never denied, that ''he began his business career as 
a mule-driver at the mines." In a very short time, 
at least, Mr. Charles T. Pierson, a merchant of the 
town, offered him a place in his store, as a clerk and 
boy of all work. With this offer he went to his 
employer, and resigned his position at the sweep. 
The superintendent kindly dismissed him, and sent 
him to the paymaster for his wages. This paymas- 
ter happened to be Deacon Marvine, and the father 
of the little miss who in due time became Mrs. 
Thomas Dickson, and so shared all the trials and 
successes of life with him. The deacon congratu- 
lated his little friend on his finding employment 
worthy of his ambition and standing, and paid him 
an extra dollar for the excellent care he had taken 
of the animal committed to his charge. 

This little incident brings to light a characteristic 
of the boy that followed him through life. This was 
his neatness of habit and purity of life. He would 
not drive even a dirty mule, if he had power to make 
him neat and tidy. He was a poor boy, indeed, but 



Organizing Power, 41 

he was never ashamed to wear the coarse clothes 
which his mother prepared for him, and he kept 
them in such trim that no one thought of their 
coarseness. By his cheerful face and his natural 
manliness he commended himself to, and was readily 
received in, all the best society the village afforded. 
This habit of neatness followed him through life. 
While there w^as nothing of the dandy apparent in 
his youth, when he became a leader in the young 
society, nor anything of the fop suggested in his 
dress or taste when he sat at the head of the board, 
in New-York, guiding the immense business of a 
great corporation, his befitting dress and his neat- 
ness of habit always impressed all who came in con- 
tact with him. 

It was not long after he entered Mr. Pierson's 
store before he found himself in the way of promo- 
tion. As soon as he made up his mind to become a 
merchant, he applied himself to the learning of the 
whole business. It does not now appear just how 
long he was with Pierson. The probability is that 
Mr. Pierson's business did not long require such an 
assistant as young Dickson proved himself to be. It 
is evident, however, that they parted with mutual 
satisfaction, for they were afterward associated in 
Dickson's great business enterprises, and were warm 
personal friends as long as Mr. Pierson lived ; and 
Mr. Dickson was chosen the guardian of his estate 
and family after his death. 



42 Thomas Dickson. 

Mr. Joseph Benjamin about that time was one of 
the largest merchants in the village ; and Thomas 
entered his employment and very soon became his 
most trusted clerk. He identified himself with all 
his employer's interests, and by his popular ways, 
both in and out of the store, became a most efficient 
helper in the business. His rapid and steady prog- 
ress in reaching the position of a popular business 
young man was generally recognized, and his worth 
was very early felt in the community. This was 
evinced by the fact that when, after a couple of 
years, Mr. Frederick P. Grow bought Mr. Benja- 
min's store, he made it one of the conditions of the 
purchase that Thomas Dickson should go with it 
and enter his employment. While Dickson could 
not exactly consent to be sold with the goods, his 
attachment to the store led him to go with it. For 
two years he became a member of Mr. Grow's fam- 
ily, and stood with him at the head of the business. 

Mr. Grow was a man of high honor and excellent 
business integrity, who needed just such an assist- 
ant. He was also a Christian gentleman of most 
genial spirit, and a very faithful friend. The friend- 
ship formed between these two young men became 
one of the conspicuous and beautiful features in the 
life of each. Dickson's attachment for Grow never 
weakened or faltered. If we may judge by the test 
that Dickson intended to give when he said he never 
teased anybody whom he did not love, or if the 



Organizing Power. 43 

amount of his teasing was in any proportion to the 
measure of his true affection, it is perfectly evident 
that Frederick P. Grow and his excellent wife were 
special objects of his confidence and love through all 
the years of his life. Mrs. Grow seems, from the begin- 
ning, to have adopted the head clerk of her husband's 
store as the child of her heart, and always appeared 
to be most happy when taking a motherly care of 
him. Even down to the day of his death her interest 
in him continued, and Mr. Dickson's funeral presented 
no more touching scene than that of this woman, in 
her widowhood, weeping over his fallen tabernacle. 

Thomas Dickson was born with a facility for mak- 
ing friends, and equally for holding them, when he 
had once attached them to himself His friends, In 
all his business life, were found among all classes 
and conditions of men. The intelligent and the 
humble, the day-laborer and the associate in his 
office, and the representatives of rival industries, all 
seemed to be personally attached to him, and took 
every proper opportunity to show him their confi- 
dence and love. 

About two years after Mr. Benjamin had sold out 
his store to Mr. Grow, he again entered the field 
with a much larger and more general stock of mer- 
chandise. He purchased the foundry, which had 
been set in operation a few years before, and in- 
cluded a drug department in his promiscuous store ; 
and so prepared himself to meet the general wants 



44 Thomas Dickson, 

of the community. Mr. Dickson had taken good 
care of his salary, feehng that he owed it to his self- 
respect, as well as to his family, to confine his 
expenditures within his income, and, as far as pos- 
sible, thus be ready to contribute his portion toward 
the help of his parents in any family burdens or 
exigencies which might come upon them. By an 
economy which never suggested stinginess, he had 
been able to save something for capital ; and he now 
especially wished to try his hand in business for 
himself. About this time his grandfather, whose 
name he bore, sent him an earnest invitation to visit 
him In Scotland, and accompanied the invitation 
with the money necessary to meet his expenses on 
such a visit. Thomas placed this money in bank, 
and after careful consideration determined to deny 
himself the visit, until he could get more fully upon 
his feet. Finding that Mr. Benjamin wanted his 
services in his new store and general enterprise, he 
proposed to go In with his old friend as a junior 
partner. This proposition was readily accepted, and 
Dickson entered the firm by placing his grand- 
fathers gift, with all the ready money he could raise, 
in the business. This proposal thus accepted, he 
at once took special charge of the drug depart- 
ment; but very soon became head manager in the 
store, giving as much time as he could to the de- 
tails of the foundry. The business was quite suc- 
cessful, especially in the direction of the foundry; 



Organizing Power. 45 

and gradually both partners turned their attention to 
the development of this department of their business, 
leaving the store more generally to the management 
of reliable clerks, among whom were his brothers 
John A. and George L., who in a few years became 
partners in the concern ; and both entered upon a 
most successful business career for themselves. Mr. 
Dickson continued in this business with Benjamin 
up to the spring of 1856, some ten years after his 
marriage, prospering in it throughout most of that 
time. 

By this time the industries of the coal-field had 
reached a second stage in the measure of their 
development, and gave dim prophecies of their 
future greatness. The Lackawanna valley was still 
a wilderness, with its dense forests of pine and 
hemlock. Its pure streams were filled with trout, 
while deer from the mountains were to be seen 
now and then on the outskirts of the small settle- 
ments. The iron-works established by '' The Scran- 
tons and Piatt" in the Slocum hollow had struggled 
through many disappointments and hard times, and 
especially through the failure of their expectation in 
the effort to develop what they then supposed to be 
the real wealth of the valley. They had placed their 
iron-works alongside of the outcrop of anthracite 
coal, within plain sight of the immense mineral 
wealth which invited their enterprise; but it was 
with the persuasion that the bog-iron ore found here 



46 Thomas Dickson, 

and there in small quantities, and the abundant tim- 
ber at hand for feeding a charcoal furnace, and for 
the supply of a good lumber-mill, had opened for 
them a highway to wealth. 

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., organized 
many years earlier, with its management in New- 
York and its field-center at Honesdale, in its at- 
tempts to operate in the valley of the Lackawanna, 
had found immense difficulty, with limited success, 
in its management. The early operators in anthra- 
cite coal all had to learn wisdom by the hard way of 
experience, as had the pioneers in all other enter- 
prises in the country. The amazing devotion of 
American genius to the mechanic arts, which, in a 
single generation, has produced its fruitage in the 
immense progress of invention, which has revolu- 
tionized the world, and the ages, had at that time 
hardly begun. The master mechanic of this greatest 
coal company of that day was a worthy millwright, 
puzzling himself alternately in a wilderness of imper- 
fect or untried machinery and of unknown wants and 
indefinite necessities. The chief leverage for lifting 
the treasures buried hundreds of feet under-ground 
had been the pulley and sweep operated along slopes 
with a motive power of mules and horses. Only such 
coal veins as were above water-level could be worked, 
as no adequate machinery had come into the field for 
the clearing of the mines of water. The exhaustless 
power for pumping out and working these mines 



Organizing Power. 47 

was yet to be found in the streams which came sing- 
ing down the mountain-sides, or lay Hke ribbons of 
silver in all the valleys. These mountain streams, 
with their banners of vapor in the frosty air, were 
ever suggestive of the unmeasured service ready to 
be bestowed on him who should discover and har- 
ness the latent forces, which thus far had been wasted 
all over the world on overshot and turbine wheels. 

The power of steam had indeed been discovered, 
and venturesome men had invented imperfect machin- 
ery for its direction and use ; but the difficulties and 
drawbacks were immense, and the capital both scarce 
and very timid. 

It was in the midst of these difficulties, and right 
along the line of this highway of slow development 
and of immense outlay of capital, of patience, and of 
industry, that the path of young Dickson lay, as he 
brought his brains and honest purpose into the field 
of enterprise and labor. As soon as he had be- 
come identified with Benjamin in the foundry at Car- 
bondale, the enterprise of making tinctures and 
molding pills, whose virtues he tested on green 
clerks and inquiring rustics, for the amusement of 
young men, became entirely too small for his 
thoughts and plans of life. His thoughts began to 
turn toward the necessities and uses of machinery 
for the development of the coal enterprise, which his 
foresight told him must be immense, in the near 
future. The success, in a limited way, of the Benja- 



48 Thomas Dickson, 

min foundry suggested to him a larger enterprise In 
this direction, and he longed for the possession of 
such a field of work, in which he could himself be the 
leader ; one which might in time provide the machin- 
ery already needed, and which he foresaw must be 
needed in increasing quantities throughout the val- 
ley. It required at that time a whole week to travel 
from the coal-fields to New- York, or Philadelphia. 
The transportation of supplies, or of machinery, was 
exceedingly slow, laborious, and costly. Through 
much of the way this transportation had to be by 
wagons, with mule teams, on roads, too, almost 
impassable. Added to this was the difficulty of con- 
structing or improving machinery suitable for the 
necessities of the work, so far away from the field of 
operation. All these facts weighed upon the active 
mind of young Dickson, until at length he deter- 
mined to attempt the organization of a manufact- 
uring company under his own control. He at once 
brought to this purpose his peculiar talent for 
utilizing the human forces within his reach. He 
enlisted his father and his brothers, and then his 
partner and some of his associates in the village, 
and put his whole force into the organization of this 
scheme. After he had settled upon his plan for the 
organization of a partnership company, and had 
induced his father, James Dickson, and his two 
brothers, John A. and George L., who had become 
interested with him in the store, to unite with him as 



Organizing Power. 49 

far as they were able in the venture, he then inter- 
ested the two brothers, Charles P. and Morris Wurts, 
and with them Messrs. Joseph Benjamin, Peter J. 
Du Bois, Charles T. Pierson, and John Dorrance. All 
of these men had been more or less intimate or 
associated with him in the struggles of their earlier 
life and business. These all joined in the enterprise 
as silent partners, and placed their money, to a lim- 
ited amount, in the firm which was established under 
the title of '' Dickson & Company." 

Thus a great and permanent industry was started 
in the valley by the foresight and energy of this 
young man while the dew of youth was yet upon 
him ; and with its growth and efficiency he has ever 
been identified. In the early spring of 1856 this 
enterprise took practical shape. In April of that 
year the organization of this company was definitely 
effected as the recognized business of *' Dickson & 
Co."; and Thomas Dickson was chosen its active 
manager. After a careful study of different locali- 
ties, touching their advantages for such a plan as 
was proposed, and considering their promises of 
future success to the industry which he had deter- 
mined to inaugurate, the young manager, then 
thirty-two years of age, concluded to establish 
his plant at Scranton, which had already begun 
decidedly to grow, under the wise management of 
the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. He was 
doubtless influenced to this decision, in some meas- 



50 Thomas Dickson, 

ure, by the prospect of railway connections, which 
promised better at that time for this point than for 
any other in the valley. He acted promptly as soon 
as his mind was made up, as was his habit. He 
purchased for his site a number of acres on what 
was then known as Pine Brook, at the point where 
it emptied into the Lackawanna, and close by the 
village graveyard. Thus early he began the work of 
interesting the members of the Lackawanna Iron 
and Coal Company in his scheme. As soon as this 
purchase was completed from that company, he sent 
down from Carbondale a sturdy, hard-working Scot 
who called himself Sandy Turnbull, who had applied 
to Mr. Dickson for work of any sort. As soon as 
the frost permitted he, in the spring of 1856, began 
to dig for the foundations of the new shop, whose 
future success was destined to carry the Dickson 
name over most of the continents. This same Sandy 
Turnbull spent his life running the main engine of 
the shop, with whose noise and song he forever min- 
gled his praises of Thomas Dickson, his employer. 
He seemed to think he was still working for ''To- 
mus," as he called him, years after Mr. Dickson had 
finished his work and gone to his rest. To this faith- 
ful Scot it will be glory enough for this world if he 
should learn that his name had occurred in a me- 
morial of Thomas Dickson. 

This venture of the Dickson Company proved 
generally successful, and throughout its history it 




> 

Q 

D 
O 
U. 

2 

O 

h 

< 
u 



Organizing Power, 51 

has been one of the potent forces for the develop- 
ment of the Lackawanna Coal enterprise, as well 
as in securing the growth and blessing of the city 
of Scranton. On the ist of May, 1862, the com- 
pany was reorganized, enlarged, and chartered as 
a stock company under the law of Pennsylvania, 
under the name, style, and title of ''The Dick- 
son Manufacturing Company." This company was 
named for Thomas Dickson, its founder, and he w^as 
chosen its president and sole acting manager. With 
energetic fervor and careful industry Mr. Dickson 
pushed this enterprise and met with rapid success. 
His two brothers, John A. and George L., and his 
sister's husband, John R. Fordham, quite early be- 
came identified with him in the works, and two of 
them continued with the shop long after he had left 
its presidency. His friend, Charles T. Pierson, after 
the stock company was established, came to Scranton 
to represent the Carbondale stockholders in the prac- 
tical conduct of the business. But for years the 
controlling stock was in the Dickson family, and the 
president never lost any of the confidence which 
these worthy business men reposed in him. "The 
Dickson Manufacturing Company " built locomotives 
for the railways and engines for the mills and mines. 
They constructed all kinds of machinery for the man- 
ufacturing industries of the rapidly forming com- 
panies and developing business enterprises all over 
the country, east and west. They constantly en- 



52 Thomas Dickson, 

larged their shops and facilities until, in the locomo- 
tive department alone, they were capable of com- 
pleting two locomotives every week, and their 
stationary engines and machinery found ultimately 
a world-wide market. 

In the presidency of this successful enterprise 
Thomas Dickson was succeeded, as time passed, 
first, by his brother, George L. Dickson, then by his 
daughters husband, Colonel Henry M. Boies, and 
then by his eldest son, James P. Dickson ; each of 
whom enlarged the capacity and efficiency of the 
works. The company still continues to operate under 
the management of James P. Dickson, and bids fair 
to carry the name with honor through the business 
schemes of coming generations. 

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company be- 
came one of the chief supporters of the Dickson Man- 
ufacturing Company very early in its career, by the 
purchase of its products. Indeed, its general trans- 
portation superintendent, Charles P. Wurts, and a 
number of its employees were stockholders in it. 
But the directors of that corporation became friendly 
to its enterprise, first, through the excellency of the 
work it turned out of the shop; and then by the 
business honesty manifested by the young president 
and manager. This historic canal and coal corpora- 
tion had found immense difficulty in developing their 
coal enterprise, which was perhaps increased by the 
distance of the headquarters of the organization from 



Organizing Power, 53 

its field of operations, as well as from the hindrances 
of imperfect transportation. The general panic and 
business disturbance of 1857 brought to this com- 
pany, as it did to all great corporations, immense 
perplexity and trouble. From the entanglement and 
depression of business, in which the disturbance of 
the country was almost universal, the Delaware and 
Hudson corporation recovered but slowly. The 
"Manufacturing Company" under Mr. Dickson's 
management came to their help as far as it was pos- 
sible. He aided the company in various ways, both 
for the sake of his own enterprise and theirs, and so 
attracted responsible men toward himself and his 
manufacturing interest. 

At length, in the summer of 1859, Mr. George T. 
Olyphant, then President of the Delaware and Hud- 
son Company, came to the valley for the purpose of 
putting the field management into a more efficient 
condition. James Archbald had resigned his posi- 
tion as coal superintendent a few years before, to be 
succeeded by John and James Hosie, in their order, 
each of whom, after a short service, had left the field 
to undertake other important enterprises. During 
the interval, and up to this time, Charles P. Wurts, 
Superintendent of Transportation, had had general 
charge. He was a most efficient officer, who had 
completed the Gravity Road, built to connect the 
company's canal at Honesdale with the field of oper- 
ation in Carbondale, and was now preparing to leave 



54 Thomas Dickson. 

the country for a sojourn of some years in Europe 
in the enjoyment of his private fortune. While here 
Mr. Olyphant met Thomas Dickson at the time he 
was perplexed with this condition of things, in which 
he felt a personal responsibility, and was impressed 
with the conviction that it would be the best thing 
for their enterprise to get him interested in the 
canal company. After consideration he offered to 
him first the place of coal superintendent, and then, 
as soon as Mr. Wurts should have withdrawn, that 
of general superintendent or field manager for the 
Delaware and Hudson Company. 

This was a decided advance upon any position 
Mr. Dickson had yet occupied, and involved a large 
addition both of work and responsibility ; but he 
believed himself by his knowledge and energy capa- 
ble of fulfilling its duties. After a careful considera- 
tion, with his characteristic and transparent honesty, 
Mr. Dickson agreed to enter the service of the 
company, with the proviso that he should be per- 
mitted to retain his position at the head of '*The 
Dickson Manufacturing Company," and at the same 
time hold the Delaware and Hudson Company, as 
formerly, a regular purchaser of the products of their 
shop. This, of course, was a condition which could 
be permitted only upon a conviction of the highest 
integrity in the manager. It must give power to 
the salaried officer of the coal corporation, in some 
measure, to use his position for the enlargement and 



Organizing Power, 55 

prosperity of another corporation, in which both 
his money and his reputation were involved. But 
the Delaware and Hudson Company seems not to 
have hesitated to accept these terms. They made 
the appointment. This was the highest compliment 
they could have paid to the integrity and manliness 
of Thomas Dickson. Nor did they ever have reason 
to regret the trust they reposed in him. They placed 
him in this position of general manager in the sum- 
mer of 1859, and allowed him to supply the field 
necessities of the corporation from the machine-shop 
which he had established and had fully in hand. 
Thus Thomas Dickson became identified with this 
great coal and transportation company, with whose 
subsequent growth and history he was to become so 
conspicuously identified. 

For ten years Mr. Dickson held this double position, 
becoming constantly more burdened with its work and 
responsibility. The enlarged schemes of both com- 
panies called for the highest and most conserva- 
tive financiering ability. The outbreak of the civil 
war had proven an unexpected stimulant to all busi- 
ness enterprise. In nothing was it more powerful 
than in the iron and coal departments in which Mr. 
Dickson was interested. The demand for the anthra- 
cite coal, and for machinery of all sorts, constantly 
enlarged throughout the four years of the war. 
Both the coal-mining of the valley and the work 
of the machine-shops were doubled in a very short 



56 Thomas Dickson, 

time, and this gave Mr. Dickson immense increase 
of work and responsibility. There was not only the 
work of the day to be done, but foundations wisely to 
be laid for future enterprise. There were coal-lands 
to be discovered, the various strata developed and 
tested, and leased or purchased. There were break- 
ers to be located and built, and these to be furnished 
with the best machinery. There were immense trans- 
actions in real estate, in which titles were to be traced 
through tortuous lines of early history and made 
secure. There were homes to provide for under- 
officials and laborers. There was live stock, in the 
way of hundreds of horses and mules, with all the 
supplies and equipments necessary to their efficient 
use; and with these the immense care included in 
the active superintendence and control of miners, 
and other employees of all sorts. Then along with 
this multiplied trust was the operation and care of 
fifteen miles of gravity railway, with its lifting-en- 
gines, and the supply and protection of the company's 
canal from Honesdale to tide-water. The care and 
management of all this work Mr. Dickson under- 
took, and was successful in it, while he still held his 
responsible relation as President of the Dickson 
Manufacturing Company, which he had already led 
to what he felt to be an assured success. 

Of course it was impossible for any man directly 
to manage all this multiplied work ; but Mr. Dickson 
developed and manifested a power and genius in his 



Organizing Power, 57 

management that few men ever reach. In these two 
positions he appHed and demonstrated his native 
endowments, and especially his ability to select, to 
harmonize and use any number of subordinates with 
the smallest amount of friction, and so as to secure 
the best general results. His judgment was so clear, 
and his conclusions so fortified and distinctly an- 
nounced, both to his associates, subordinates, and 
employers, that they seldom needed revision. He 
was said to be a stubborn man, and probably he was. 
But he always gained his points with the best of 
good nature, and his triumphs left those who were 
discomfited by him without lacerated feelings. In- 
deed, generally men became his better friends after 
their differences with him. He once said to me that 
he attributed the best success of his life to his ability 
to control men without requiring them to feel it. His 
efficiency In managing the great trusts he had held 
he traced to the facts that he always treated his 
subordinates as his friends; always personally re- 
ceived them as his equals, just as far as they would 
allow him to do so ; and that he tried his best to 
deal justly with men, in every condition of life. 

Mr. Dickson continued to hold his double trust in 
the complex position as president of the manufact- 
uring company and coal superintendent of the Dela- 
ware and Hudson Company up to the first of May, 
1867, when the business of both companies had so 
enlarged that the burden of responsibility became 



58 Thomas Dickson, 

too great, he was persuaded, for a single admin- 
istration. He had associated with him those who 
had become fully prepared to take up his work 
for the manufacturing company ; and therefore he 
resigned his office as president of that company in 
favor of his brother, George L. Dickson, who had 
proved himself entirely worthy of the trust. He 
continued in the Board of Directors, and kept his 
stock and interest with the company as long as he 
lived. He now became fairly enlisted and fully iden- 
tified with the Delaware and Hudson Company. He 
established the offices of the company in Scran- 
ton, in due time, on the adjoining square to that 
occupied by the manufacturing company's shops. 
The railway was built from Carbondale to Scranton, 
with branch roads and tracks to all the breakers of 
the company, as soon as these were completed. A 
new road was also constructed, as a branch from 
Green Ridge, to connect with the Lehigh and Sus- 
quehanna, and the Jersey Central, at Wilkes- Barre. 
To serve the best interests of this great corporation 
now became the prime object of Mr. Dickson's life. 

As soon as he concluded to make Scranton his 
home, he began to identify himself also with the 
interests of the young city, both in a social and busi- 
ness way. He united with the most energetic busi- 
ness men, and the best citizens, in the effort to 
provide the city with all necessary public institu- 
tions, Christian and moral, as well as with such as 



Organizing Power. 59 

might concentrate capital and facilitate business. 
On the 20th of September, 1863, in company with 
half a dozen other leading citizens, he united in 
organizing the *' First National Bank of Scranton," x 
which has proved, throughout a period of more than 
twenty-five years, one of the most successful institu- 
tions of its kind in the country. Mr. Dickson con- 
tinued in its board of directors as long as he lived. 
By his conservative force, and justice in dealing, he 
endeared himself to all his associates in this enter- 
prise, and did much toward determining its business 
character. 

On the 2 2d of April, 1865, he also associated 
himself with a number of gentlemen of the city in 
organizing another industry in the valley, which was 
destined to become one of the institutions of the 
country. This was the *' Moosic Powder Company," 
the special reason for the organization of which was, 
no doubt, found in the enormous amount of blasting- 
powder necessary to be used for mining purposes 
in the valley. As one of the founders of this enter- 
prise, Mr. Dickson continued in its board of direct- 
ors throughout his life. This industry has pros- 
pered for many years, and continues to increase its 
product and enlarge its market. The clearness of 
Mr. Dickson's foresight and his sterling business 
ability might be reasonably inferred from the more 
than ordinary success of the business organizations 
in which he was an actor or leader, and from the 



6o Thomas Dickson, 

abundant and lasting fruits of their enterprise. 
There were many of these with whose initiation 
he was identified, which were more or less success- 
ful. Indeed, as a general thing, those of them which 
were farthest removed from his influence proved 
the most hazardous and the least successful. As he 
rose in his business position, and his characteristics 
became more widely known, he was chosen to one 
directorship after another in the great organiza- 
tions for business in New -York and Scranton. 
Some he accepted and some declined ; but the great 
service of his life was given to the Delaware and 
Hudson Canal Company until he became almost its 
embodiment as well as representative in the public 
mind. 

After seven years' service as general superin- 
tendent of this corporation he was elected its vice- 
president in 1867. Two years later, in the summer 
of 1869, he was chosen its president. In this office 
he continued through more than fifteen years, and 
only vacated it at the summons of the Angel of 
Death. 

Thus for almost twenty-five years of full and 
active service in the three highest places of trust in 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, this boy 
of the mine-sweep with its unruly mule, gave to 
the great corporation his energy, his genius, and 
ability, and he died beloved by all who worked with 
him or under his direction. The estimate of his 



07'ganizing Power. 6 1 

associates In the directorship, and of the stock- 
holders, of his character, both as a counselor and a 
man, will be perpetuated to his family in the papers 
placed upon the records of the company, some of 
which will be incorporated in this memorial. 




IV. 



HIS HOME AND HUMOR HUSBAND, FATHER, 

FRIEND SOCIAL LIFE. 



IT will be borne in mind that it is not proposed 
to write any adequate record of the acts and 
business schemes of this successful father and friend. 
It is not intended, in any proper sense, to present or 
preserve a view of the material harvests of his sow- 
ing. We are not able to trace the manifold results 
of the forces which he set in operation in his more 
than ordinary business career. It is the man and 
brother, with his clear head and true heart, which 
we are seeking to embalm in his household and 
among the circle of his friends and associates. His 
business career and his great enterprises are sup- 
posed to be useful in this direction only in so far 



62 



Home Life, 63 

as they reveal his genius, for clear apprehension, 
and his manly rectitude of character; only in so far 
as they intelligently illustrate his success and his life 
of honest justice, or reveal his great heart of gen- 
erous benevolence toward men of all conditions. 
What he did for himself, for his family, for his asso- 
ciates, and for the world at large, shows him to have 
been worthy of the greatest honors and the tender- 
est remembrance his posterity can ever give him. 

But it is in the home, the social and religious life of 
the man, that we discover the most precious charac- 
teristics, which ought to perpetuate the memory of this 
home-made and lovinof character. About the time 
when young Thomas Dickson came out a full-fledged 
clerk in the Carbondale store, and began to try his 
talents in debating clubs and literary societies, he 
started to win his position in the social life of the 
young people. The winter singing-schools offered 
just the field for his enterprise, for there was real 
music in his soul, although a music which could 
hardly be set to the peculiar square notes of the 
music-books then in use. During the recesses and 
breathing-spells of this semi-social and semi-musical 
soiree young Dickson was accustomed to bring out 
his best parts in social episodes to the music, for the 
refreshment of the girls. Just for the fun, he exer- 
cised himself in the effort to carry off the most 
sprightly lass who happened to have company whom 
he judged not exactly to her liking. It gave quite 



64 Thomas Dickson, 

a zest to the life of the settlement to witness these 
contests of gallantry between the young men. The 
community thought It no harm to laugh over the 
discomforts of the spruce young man who had set- 
tled himself under a profound conviction that a 
certain young lady only waited the crook of his 
elbow to allow him to exhibit his proficiency in 
gallantry, when he found, after he begun to crook 
that elbow, the smiling miss was decidedly leaning 
toward the rollicking clerk of the village drug-store. 
To "cut out" somebody, as it was called, was better 
to Thomas than the rhythm of song, and to take 
home some " other fellow's girl " afforded the appro- 
priate music for his step. 

It was In the midst of this kind of harmless mis- 
chief that Thomas found his destiny at last. In one of 
these scouting adventures he snatched from the ap- 
proach of a young man, who had been foolish enough 
to make public his intentions, the sprightly young 
daughter of Deacon Marvine. The name of this 
young lady was Mary Augusta, the eldest daughter 
of Rosv/ell E. Marvine and Sophia Raymond. Mr. 
and Mrs. Marvine were known as two of the most 
devoted and consistent Christians in all the valley. 
They were natives of the State of New-York, and 
had moved into the valley about the time the work 
of coal-mining began. Mr. Marvine soon became 
one of the trusted agents of the Delaware and Hud- 
son Company. He was chosen a ruling elder in the 



Home Life. 65 

Presbyterian Church, and his excellent wife became 
the leader in the Christian society of the community. 
They were blessed with five children, all of whom 
afterward reached stations of influence and Christian 
efficiency. The eldest girl of this excellent household, 
which was known for fifty years as a leading family 
in the valley, was this Mary Augusta, whom Thomas 
Dickson approached at the breaking-up of the sing- 
ing-class and offered himself as a substitute of some 
worthy young man whom he thought not quite good 
enough for her. She accepted his gallantry for rea- 
sons best known to herself, and on the walk home- 
ward the congeniality of spirit seemed so complete, 
and the fitness of things so surprisingly natural, that 
Dickson ever afterward maintained that it was dur- 
ing this same walk that he determined to win the 
girl's heart and marry her sometime if he could. It 
seems, too, that Miss Mary could think of no vital 
objection to this scheme of the young man if he 
should conclude to undertake it. 

Mary Marvine was a very sprightly, amiable girl, 
endowed with as many Christian virtues and maid- 
enly excellencies as could be desired. Domestic In 
her tastes, and uniformly amiable in temper, she was 
thought in the village society to be possessed of 
all the virtues of that womanhood which promises 
to make a man's home blessed. Her whole future 
proved that these prophecies were certainly true. 
At the age of fourteen years she united with the 



66 Thomas Dickson, 

Presbyterian Church by profession of faith, and 
through all the years of her consistent after-life she 
has proved the sincerity of her profession. It was a 
striking incident that Thomas Dickson and his sis- 
ters united with the same church on the same day 
with Mary Augusta Marvlne. Before these two had 
any thoughts of uniting their hearts and destinies 
for the pilgrimage of life, they had begun their 
Christian walk together. Miss Marvlne was between 
sixteen and seventeen years of age when young 
Dickson began his attacks upon the citadel of her 
heart. The result was a foregone conclusion among 
their friends from the beginning, and the suitable- 
ness of the match was generally acknowledged, and 
nobody knew how to prevent it if it had been other- 
wise. On the 31st day of August, 1846, when she 
was barely twenty-one, and he not yet twenty-three, 
Thomas Dickson and Mary Marvlne were united in 
marriage, bearing with them into the new life the 
best wishes of a host of friends and the respect of a 
whole community. They immediately set up their 
housekeeping In a humble way In a rented house 
in Carbondale. From the beginning Mr. Dickson 
manifested his domestic tastes as well as his ability 
to make his home cheerful and happy. The little 
house became a rendezvous of the best young society, 
and Dickson's cheerful ways and fun-loving dispo- 
sition was allowed its full play, sometimes to the 
amusement of his nearest nel^rhbors. Even the few 



Home Life. 6y 

moments of the noon hour, which the young husband 
snatched from his work, were filled with shouts of 
laughter in the home where the young wife found 
her special enjoyment in those arts and cares that 
make a home delightful. Their life was so full of love 
and interest to themselves and to their associates 
that those who met Dickson in his home scarcely 
ever thouorht of him as a man burdened with orreat 
schemes or responsibilities. 

He never carried into his home any of his business 
cares. This rule he followed throughout his busy life. 
His wife even yet says that she can recall but a single 
instance when the immense burden of his business 
was not left entirely at the office; — but one instance 
when he was actually kept by the cares of that busi- 
ness from his usual peaceful sleep. That was the time 
when his associates in business seemed to have lost 
both their faith and courage. He felt that he stood 
alone with the nieht of disaster closed about him. 
He had pledged his entire fortune in the faith that 
the company, for whose character he stood, would 
be able to weather the storm of the financial disas- 
ter which was working ruin of business trusts every- 
where. When he closed his office and turned his steps 
homeward, as long as he had good health, he seemed to 
gather mental elasticity and vivacity as he approached 
his family. By the time he had reached his door 
he was all ready to quiz his wife, or astonish his chil- 
dren with his preposterous pleasantries, which opened 



6S Thomas Dickso7i, 

their young eyes with wonder — pleasantries he had 
invented with the aid of his fruitful imagination. 

Genuine Christian hospitality became the expres- 
sion of his- home, whether it was the little cottage 
kept with careful economy, or the great house in 
which luxury glorified the success of honest business, 
in all the loving life of this husband and wife to- 
gether. They seemed most happy when they were 
sharing the good cheer of their home with their 
friends of all conditions of life. They spent a re- 
spectable fortune in the expenses of their free hos- 
pitality, and in it all there was never a suspicion of 
vanity. Success in life awoke no spirit of vanity, in 
either husband or wife, who had so cheerfully walked 
the paths of poverty and rigid economy together. 
Experience, in which the enjoyment of prosperous 
life and the ability to gratify their own tastes by the 
increase of income, had indeed taught them the real 
value of money ; but it brought them no temptation 
to start upon that way of economy whose goal is 
narrow meanness, which is called '' the charity which 
begins at home." The husband and wife were always 
one in the conduct and enjoyments of their home- 
life and its hospitality. Rich and poor, the refined 
and the uncultivated, when they crossed the thresh- 
old of Thomas Dickson's dwelling found neither the 
spirit nor the conventional forms which might sug- 
gest to honest souls the possibility of intrusion. His 
wife used to tell, as an offset to some of his innumer- 



Home Life. 69 

able drives, when he attempted to tease her about 
her personal tastes toward certain people, a story 
which illustrates his native sympathy with humanity 
and his real democracy in spite of himself. He was 
affected with the almost universal social prejudice of 
Americans against the colored race. Now and then 
he essayed earnest argument with his wife on that 
subject. His wife had inherited from her father that 
broad humanity which finds no ground for disrespect 
in the mere color of the African's skin. Now and 
then she would threaten to invite a colored man or 
woman from their neighborhood to dine with the 
family. He used to answer, ''Well, ' guid wife,' you 
may invite them, and eat with them, if you feel called 
to do so. You may give them the best you have, 
and I shall be happy ; but I will wait patiently until 
they are all through. Or, if it will be more conven- 
ient, I will eat in the kitchen, and they shall have 
the best of the house ; but eat with a negro I 
NEVER CAN, — at least, not until he grows white and 
loses his odor." At length, one day Mrs. Dickson 
was more than surprised to see her husband bring 
home with him, upon an invitation to dinner, one of 
the darkest of the race, in his working-clothes. She 
remonstrated, of course, with great earnestness, with 
the fun dancing about her eyes ; but he protested 
''this was no ordinary negro. He was one of the 
most honest, real white men he had met with in 
years " ; and he insisted that he should be placed 



70 Thomas Dickson, 

next to his host, and make the children wait if they 
did not hke it. She mentioned the possible odor 
which she feared might interfere with the comfort of 
his dinner. But he insisted that so godly and honest 
a man as this could have no odor about him that a 
true Christian should object to. In fact, he thought 
him simply a colored Scotchman. The family, of 
course, complied with his wishes with a suppressed 
pleasure which was highly spiced to them by the an- 
ticipated privilege of the advantage he had afforded, 
and which they should not be slow to use in their 
spars and drives with him in their future discussions 
of this colored question. But henceforth he never 
alluded to the subject voluntarily except to frankly 
acknowledge, when reminded of his weakness in 
company, that once in his married life his wife had 
got the better of him ; and he said he could see no 
reason why she should not, when she had been so 
unfair as to train all her children to help her. His 
ability to free himself from difficulties and uncom- 
fortable positions, whether in social or business life, 
was as striking as the sharpness and wisdom of his 
care to avoid them. He was seldom nonplused by 
an opponent, and if he were, he did not forget it, but 
good-naturedly "bided his time" until the opportu- 
nity of balancing accounts came to him. 

As soon as it was determined to establish the 
Dickson Manufacturing Company at Scranton, Mr. 
Dickson decided to move to that place and identify 




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-z 
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Home Life. 71 

himself with the growing interests of that young 
city. Here, in the autumn of 1857, he purchased a 
house, which was then new, but which since has 
been greatly enlarged and improved, and which still 
stands at the corner of Washington avenue and Vine 
street. This house for more than twenty years has 
been known as the Albright residence, the house 
in which Joseph J. Albright, Mr. Dickson's choice 
friend, lived and died. Into this house Mr. Dickson 
moved as soon as he had established the machine- 
shop, a little more than a square away from it. In 
this house some of his children were born, and the 
family became attached to it by many happy asso- 
ciations ; but it was too small for Mr. Dickson's 
enlarging hospitality and increased responsibilities; 
and especially too limited to meet the necessities of 
his growing family. He lived here for five years, 
during which time he built his large and luxurious 
residence on the adjoining grounds. This house, 
which he built on Washington avenue, has stood for 
years as one of the beautiful homes of the city. 
One of Mr. Dickson's chief reasons for building was 
the want of room for improvements of his family 
home which time might demand, and especially want 
of grounds for the exercise of his taste in landscape 
gardening, which in the later years of his life be- 
came a solace and a luxury in which he delighted. 
On the Christmas day of 1862, when the country 
was in its great struggle to subdue the slaveholders' 



72 Thomas Dickson. 

rebellion and save the Union, the family moved into 
this, the only house which he ever built for himself 
From time to time he enlarged and improved it, and 
now and then lived in other places, but it was always 
considered the family home. Here Thomas Dickson 
set up his Penates and sanctified his home life with 
his family altar. This was the home which he filled 
with the choice treasures of his taste, and crystallized 
them all with his peaceful family history. From this 
family altar, fortified by a Christian mother's care, 
his children went and came, threading the ways of 
their liberal education. Its shadows were made 
sacred by the members of the family circle who 
grew weary and left it for ''the rest that remain- 
eth." From its threshold went forth the grown-up 
children, with their father's benediction; held in 
the bonds of that new life which breaks and forever 
enlarges the family circle. Innumerable remem- 
brances of the happy household are treasured within 
these walls, within its halls and airy chambers. But 
among all its precious treasures there remains the 
one figure — the husband, the father, and friend, for- 
ever the most precious and sacred to those who 
remain on earth. 

The later years of his life, after his children were 
married or had scattered, the pressure of business 
compelled Mr. Dickson to reside for part of the year 
near to the headquarters of the company, in New- 
York. Some winters he consequently spent in hotel 



Home Life. 73 

life, always occupying the same rooms at the Gilsey 
Hotel, where he was inseparable from his wife. 
While here he exercised his hospitality as best he 
could; but growing weary of this kind of life, he 
followed his home tastes, and purchased a beautiful 
residence at Morristown, N. J., with its adjoining 
grounds of fifty acres, more or less. This he called 
his Jersey farm, and in nothing did he ever find a 
way so fully to gratify his taste, or to enjoy the 
peace and comfort of his home-life, as when he 
walked or rested among its flowers and magnificent 
trees. He never seemed more happy than when 
pointing out the pictures of peaceful beauty to the 
multitude of his appreciative friends who perpetually 
gathered about him. His friends and associates all 
reached the one conclusion, that whatever might be 
Thomas Dickson's grasp of mind, or his power to 
mold men and control business, his special endow- 
ment was his ability to create and beautify a Chris- 
tian home upon earth. Along with this was the 
power to tie humanity to himself and his house- 
hold with the bands of intelligent, generous affection 
and lasting friendship. With the warm heart and 
straightforwardness of the child he blended the 
truthfulness of the just man in all his home life as 
well as in his business. Hence it is that most of his 
friends remember him not specially as a great and 
successful man of business, who by the versatility of 
his genius and patience of his industry arose from 



74 Thomas Dickson. 

the narrow life of poverty and uneducated youth to 
win a magnificent fortune single-handed, and make 
a place for himself among gentlemen and scholars of 
the best station on earth; but rather as the husband, 
the father, the citizen, and friend, walking among 
the flowers which he planted as if he had been born 
there. He never seemed so great and good as when 
giving his time to eliciting and enjoying the wonder 
of his grandchildren who clung to him. The real 
manhood of the successful president was most con- 
spicuous as he sat under his own vine and fig-tree 
to entertain and enjoy the converse of the number- 
less friends who had learned the way to his heart 
through the loving hospitality of his beautiful home. 
It was Dickson the Man, the Brother, rather than 
Dickson the President and broad-gauged man of 
business, that had made for himself a place in the 
hearts of the men of his generation. Yet there 
were few men of his generation who ever carried 
heavier business schemes to such certain and perma- 
nent success. It was his chief excellence that he 
never permitted his business to swallow up or sully 
his beautiful manhood. 




\ 



V 



RELIGIOUS FAITH AND ITS EXPRESSION. 



OF the religious character and life of Thomas 
Dickson it remains to make some worthy 
record. This portion of his memorial I approach 
with some hesitancy and diffidence, which arise, not 
from the specific case, but from the general subject. 
There can be no desire to place upon this family 
tablet any of that pious literature of the cemetery 
which certainly is apt rather to preserve pictures of 
the living than excellences of the dead. It is a diffi- 
cult thing to record justly and truthfully the Chris- 
tian character of a brother who has gone to his 
account. We cannot speak of that character as we 
could if he were present to modify or protest. But 
if any man is able to make a fair record of the Chris- 
tian faith or of the religious life and character of this 



76 Thomas Dickson, 

man, it would seem that the writer of this memorial 
ought to be able to do so. During the last sixteen 
years of his life, in his private intercourse, he was 
accustomed to recognize him as his pastor as well 
as friend. 

Yet there is so much in the intercourse of a Pres- 
byterian Christian and his pastor which contains 
in it heart-history, ever to be held sacred, that no 
account could be honest or full which records relig- 
ious life or convictions as fully known between them. 
There is a vast deal of personal experience which 
can never be brought to the light of the world. 
Then, too, there is so much in the burdens and trials 
of a busy public life to interfere with that which 
Christians are wont to conceive as the only consist- 
ent exhibition of what they call religion, that it is 
difficult for a conscientious pastor to give even his 
own clear judgment of the spiritual life or Christian 
excellence of his friend. The world and Christians 
have such different standards of judgment, and the 
best men have so dim a perception of the true excel- 
lences of Christian character and the worthy propor- 
tions of Christian zeal, that it becomes perplexing 
even to attempt to draw a positive picture of one 
which may satisfy the outside world and do strict 
justice to the subject. 

But this we can say, and be sure that the Chris- 
tian world who knew him will both understand and 
fully appreciate it : Thomas Dickson's religion was 



Religious Faith. 77 

A LIFE which was founded and built upon what is 
understood as the evangelical orthodox foundation. 
It was a grand principle running through his modes 
of thought, his pious meditations, and his business 
activity alike. He was neither in his business nor 
his religious life subject to moods of either ecstatic 
feeling, or spasmodic activity. His Christian life and 
virtues blended so naturally with his daily dealings 
with men, that he seemed never to step into a new 
atmosphere, or change his step, for the performance 
of religious duties. He was subject to no periods of 
doubt and dullness of spiritual apprehension, nor to 
spasmodic acts of piety in order to heal soul-bruises 
arising from an irreligious worldly conformity. 

At the age of sixteen years he gave his heart to 
his Saviour, just as his parents had taught him he 
should, and in a time of special religious interest in 
the community on the subject of religion, he took 
his place, with many of his young companions, in the 
Carbondale Presbyterian Church, upon the profes- 
sion of his faith. From that day, we will be safe in 
the conclusion that he never once thought of taking 
back, or modifying, or of denying his confession of 
Christ. It was a hearty and true confession. He 
never became what we would call an aggressive 
Christian ; perhaps with his special endowments and 
life associates he could not have been ; but his clear 
conception of the method of grace, and his final set- 
tlement of the great questions of the soul's salvation, 



78 Thomas Dickson, 

left him with few anxieties in regard to his relation 
to God with which his life might be clouded. For a 
time he once became entangled with the discipline 
of his church upon the vexing and never-settled 
question of youthful and social amusements. On 
this subject he and the Carbondale Session could 
never agree ; but with a manly, Christian spirit he 
maintained his position, which his best friends be- 
lieved to be right ; and he patiently waited until the 
views of the Church itself brought him out fairly into 
the light. He was a supporter of the Church in 
every possible way, and brought up his family to 
venerate all its institutions as well as to bear its 
burdens with a manly honesty, which he never could 
call generosity or benevolence, but simply Christian 
duty. The proper expenses of the Church to his 
mind never came under the head of benevolence ; 
and if he ever failed in his patience toward his 
fellow- Christians at all, it was toward those who 
delayed or neglected to do their duty in the bearing 
of church burdens. 

Through his whole life Mr. Dickson was connected 
by membership with only three churches. The Car- 
bondale Presbyterian Church, of which both his 
father and his father-in-law were ruling elders, was 
the one where he confessed his Lord. After years 
of connection wnth it, he transferred his membership 
to the First Presbyterian Church of Scranton, after 
he moved to that city. In this church he early be- 



Religioics Faith, 79 

came a leader, and remained in its communion until 
it was found wise to send out a colony for the found- 
ing of a new organization in the growing city. He 
was appealed to to become the leader of this colony. 
In this movement he hesitated, believing it to be 
premature. But after receiving the assurance from 
his pastor and friend of his judgment that he ought 
to lead the enterprise, and after extracting from this 
pastor the promise that the bonds of friendship and 
of pastoral association should never be weakened or 
broken by his new church life, he consented to go 
with the colony to form the Second Presbyterian 
Church of Scranton. In this organization he re- 
mained a leader and the largest contributor until he 
entered the Church of the first-born, whose names 
are written in Heaven. In this church he proposed 
to give one-tenth of all that was necessary to be 
raised for the church building or for benevolent pur- 
poses." The organ in this church, presented by his 
widow, bears his name upon its front, and stands 
before the church his perpetual memorial. 

His association with the brethren in all his 
church life was happy, being always without the 
suspicion of arrogance, or any demand of recogni- 
tion, because of either his wealth or his business 
position. He was but a member in the church in 
all his association with God's people, and asked for 
no higher place. 

Wherever Mr. Dickson remained for a time, either 



8o Thomas Dickson, 

in his summer vacations or winter work, he identi- 
fied himself with some congregation of evangeHcal 
Christians, and became more or less intimate with 
the pastors ; and many a country church and pastor 
felt the benevolent power of his sojourn. When in 
the city of New York he always held a seat in one 
or more churches, and became intimate with their 
pastors. During two or three years he held a pew 
in the Reformed Church. His friend Dr. Ormiston, 
a brother Scotchman, was the pastor. With this 
pastor he heartily associated through all the later 
years of his life, and he had no dearer friend or 
warmer admirer. When he took possession of his 
home at Morristown he identified himself with the 
church of which Dr. Erdman was the pastor, and 
while still retaining his membership in the Second 
Church of Scranton, he was ever recognized in 
Morristown actively interested in their church work. 
Dr. Wm. C. Cattell, for years the President of La- 
fayette College, was for years recognized as one 
of Mr. Dickson's most intimate friends. He and 
Dr. Erdman, together with Dr. Ormiston and his 
old friend and pastor in Scranton, found the Dickson 
residence the home of a parishioner. At his death 
these four ministers of Christ mourned for him as for 
a brother. 

He seemed really to have had few if any temp- 
tations to exercise himself with questions of a 
speculative faith ; nor did he have very profound 



Religious Faith. 8i 

convictions of the importance of any logical system 
of theology. His piety was never expressed in 
theological terms, nor was it manifestly molded into 
a dependence upon forms of worship. In a word, 
his religion was to be found in his life — adorned by 
his exercise of the Christian virtues of justice and 
generosity to all. It was expressed by his brotherly 
kindness and charity, in his contact with the world 
under all circumstances. His piety was recognized 
in the manifest sincerity of his reverence for every- 
thing sacred, and in his spirit of humility in all his 
dealings with God and with God's people. His 
family altar, his Sabbath observance and public wor- 
ship were but the unostentatious and regular fulfill- 
ment of Christian duty, as he understood them, and 
apparently as much so as the payment of a debt or 
the meeting of a business appointment. His sup- 
port of the church and his contributions to church 
work were constant and generous ; and he usually 
aimed to use his contributions so as to make them a 
power to increase the benevolence of others. While 
a great deal of his benevolence was spontaneous, 
he generally gave away his money upon Christian 
principle, and very seldom from impulse. He was 
an enlightened friend of colleges and institutions of 
learning ; but he never had the time to abide long 
enough in a college atmosphere to become actively 
identified with this grand power of Christian civiliza- 
tion. He always seems to have been interested in 



82 Thomas Dickson. 

the work of Christian churches in the community 
where he happened to live, and in the endowment 
of Christian institutions wherever he was brought 
into contact with their work and saw their need ; 
while he never became greatly interested in the 
great work of missions among the heathen. His 
life wa? too largely concentrated, and too thoroughly 
identified with the opening business of the great 
country in which he lived for him to enter fully into 
the spirit of missions to the race, as conducted by 
the great Church he loved. 

While Mr. Dickson was never aggressive as a 
Christian in the sense of commending the gospel in 
words, or religious appeals, he was never indifferent 
to the salvation of men's souls ; nor did he ever hesi- 
tate to express his religious convictions on all suitable 
occasions. He had a very dear and life-long friend, 
vv^hose bent of mind, and habits of thought and in- 
vestigation, led him into the fields of religious doubt 
and speculation, respecting the Church and the tenets 
of the Christian faith. Dickson's association with this 
friend was, through many years, the most intimate and 
brotherly. To all his friend's speculations he used to 
answer, with the same clear and positive conclusion 
which characterized him in business propositions, 
somewhat after this style : '' My friend, we know very 
little of the things that are beyond the limits of our 
senses; and I am entirely confident that after we have 



Religious Faith. 83 

learned all we can, and speculated as far as we please, 
we shall have to come back honestly to the exercise 
of the same faith in the Redeemer of mankind which 
our fathers had, and simply trust in Him for our salva- 
tion, unto all eternity." 

His attendance on public worship was precisely of 
the same regular character as his appearance in his 
place of business. No amount of burden or care, no 
whims of taste or weakness of the preaching, were 
ever allowed to prevent his appearance in God's house 
among the worshipers. 

The illustrations of the decided practical character 
of his every-day religion are abundantly scattered all 
along the path of his Christian life. I will record a 
single one which certainly deserves to be perpet- 
uated. 

On the i6th of November, 1873, the congregation 
of the First Presbyterian Church in Scranton cele- 
brated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The exercises 
of the morning were under the direction of the pas- 
tor, who devoted the hour to a historical discourse, 
which included in it the early history of the city as 
well as of the church, and which proved refreshing 
to all the old citizens. In the evening the con- 
gregation took the matter into their own hands. 
Papers and speeches containing reminiscences and 
historic gems were presented by the laymen, both 
old and young. In the afternoon, between the 



84 Thomas Dickson, 

morning and evening services, the pastor received 
the following note, which explains itself, and which 
we think belongs properly to this memorial. It 
was as follows : 



SCRANTON, Nov. 1 6, 1 873. 

My Dear Doctor: During your very interesting 
review of the history of the church, this morning, the 
thought occurred to me that something might be 
done to give prominence and abiding interest to the 
occasion. 

I suggest, therefore, that an endowment fund of 
$10,000 be raised, which shall be permanently invested 
by the Session of the church, — which can be securely 
done at, say, 7 per cent, — and that the income arising 
therefrom be held and used by the Session for the 
relief of the poor of the church, and for no other pur- 
pose. The annual income would be $700, and in a 
community like ours might be productive of much 
good. While we are having a love-feast and general 
shaking of hands, let us do something that will be 
approved by those who are to follow us, and which 
the Master we profess to serve enjoins — '' take care of 
the poor!' If this suggestion meets your approval let 
the movement be initiated, and, if possible, be com- 
pleted to-night. 

I am aware that, in the present conditions of the 
financial and industrial interests of the country, all feel 



Religiotis Faith. 85 

poor, and that the present may be considered an in- 
opportune time ; but the money will not be needed at 
once. Let the subscriptions be made bearing inter- 
est at 7 per cent., so that there may be immediate 
income, and payments of principal be made hereafter, 
when money is more plentiful. We ought to be will- 
ing to incur debt in such a cause. 

If the project meets approval, I will subscribe $1000 
provided the full sum of $10,000 is raised. If you 
think well of it, I will see you during the afternoon. 

Very sincerely yours. 

Rev. s. c. Logan, d. d. Thomas Dickson. 



The pastor read this letter to the evening congre- 
gation, and followed it with an address, in which he 
heartily indorsed the proposition it contained as both 
appropriate and opportune. He proposed that this 
memorial of God's grace, recorded in the history of 
the church, be raised at once, to mark this historic 
point in the life of this remarkable organization. 
This proposition was at once accepted by the people, 
and in a very few minutes more than $7000 of the 
$10,000 proposed was subscribed. Mr. Dickson 
then arose and proposed to increase his own sub- 
scription to $1250 if the amount first proposed could 
be fully raised that night. The congregation took 
him at his word with a glad enthusiasm, and in just 



86 Thomas Dickson. 

12 minutes from the time the subscriptions began, 
as indicated by the pastor's watch, — which he held 
in his hand, — that subscription was completed, and 
a fund to provide for the poor of the church was 
established amounting to $10,830. 

The pastor then announced to Mr. Dickson that the 
terms of his proposal had been met. He thanked him 
for this suggestion and his generosity to the poor, and 
called upon him to know if anything remained to 
meet the conditions of his own subscription. Mr. 
Dickson in an appropriate acknowledgment stated 
his reasons for making his subscription conditional, 
through the hopes of completing the work at once 
and having a monument erected in the history of the 
church. He hoped the subscription would be left 
open, that none of the members might be deprived of 
the blessing of taking a part in this good work, if 
they should choose to do so. He closed his remarks 
with his subscription of $1250. This fund for the 
poor was Dickson's pious thought; and it was just 
like him. His piety led him in all his career to be 
mindful of the poor. With the poor his early life 
was associated, and as, step by step, he rose, he car- 
ried the poor with him. Through all time this monu- 
ment of Christian love will stand, with its beautiful 
proportions, a way-mark in the work and history of 
this remarkable church of Presbyterian people. And 
the most conspicuous names on it, associated with 
those of the noblest men and women recorded in the 



Religious Faith. 87 

history of the city, to be read by the Lord's afflicted 
disciples, are those of Thomas Dickson, and of his 
wife Mary. 

Mr. Dickson's benevolence was generous and with- 
out ostentation. He was never heard to claim any 
sort of credit for what he gave, nor to ask for any 
special consideration in any of the churches where he 
identified himself with God's people because of what 
he was able to do for his Lord and Master. Thus 
we ever conceive of Thomas Dickson's religion — as 
practical, without the suggestion of ostentation. Its 
life-principle was to be found in all his walks and pur- 
suits, so constant and noiseless as to be thought sim- 
ply a part of his life's business. His utter incapacity 
for cant, or pious expression, taken with his fun-loving 
spirit and his identification or association with men of 
all sorts, possibly sometimes placed him, in the minds 
of earnest Christians, as one possessed of no great 
depth of religious feelings ; but his pastor and friend 
ever found, in the depths of his honest life-experience, 
the pure gold of a loving Christian heart. The testi- 
mony of his associates and co-workers was given with 
singular unanimity to this fact, when they recorded 
their estimate of him after he was gone. 

We can speculate upon what might have been his 
power, and his wider influence as a Christian or a 
religious man, if his environment had been different; 
or if he had consented to the desire of the church, 
more than once expressed to him, to accept the 



88 Thomas Dickson. 

ofBce so long held by his venerable father. What 
he might have been in the courts and great schemes 
of the church, had he become a ruling elder, we 
who knew him might reasonably conjecture. We 
may imagine that for many of the duties and respon- 
sibilities of this office he was both richly endowed 
and well adapted; but, doubtless knowing himself 
better than his friends could know him, he decided 
wisely in declining all positions in the church save 
those of a sincere and faithful membership. His 
association with ministers was never with them as a 
class, while he listened with pious regard to all of 
them, and with a catholic spirit. But many of his 
choice personal friends and associates were ministers 
of high standing, for whom he cherished the affec- 
tion of a friend rather than the interest of a parish- 
ioner. These servants of God he has bound to 
himself and his family by cords of love and precious 
remembrance of kindness which his death has only 
made more permanent in their hearts. Such of 
these ministers as are alive to-day count it one of 
their choice blessings in life that God gave them an 
intimate association with Thomas Dickson and his 
Christian wife. 

Thus I have tried to give a true and general esti- 
mate of the life and character of a man whose mem- 
ory must ever be precious to those who knew him, 
specially so to those who were bound to him by the 
ties of kindred or blood. On every branch of the sub- 



Religious Faith. 89 

ject that has been considered, whole volumes might 
have been written. I have simply attempted to give 
glimpses, or passing shadows, of the successful busi- 
ness man who was, and must remain, in the memory 
of his associates a noble father, husband, and friend. 
There is presented here only outlines and incom- 
plete figures which his children may perfect, in order 
to secure the remembrance of the full-rounded man, 
with his full-rounded life, who now rests from his 
labors; while his life-blood and the fruits of his 
industry work on to bring blessing to their lives 
through the ages. On each of these specifications, 
facts and incidents are abundant that would certainly 
be of interest, and might be indefinitely multiplied 
by his friends. But it must be remembered that this 
tablet is only intended to be suggestive to that circle 
whose life has been identified with his. It will have 
met its end if it shall prove helpful in recalling and 
perpetuating the remembrance of the many-sided 
and graceful endowments that, as a Christian man, 
he unconsciously exhibited to the circle of which he 
was the life. 

Thomas Dickson never worked for posthumous 
fame, nor thought to live up to a possible obituary 
which his friends might give him. Weaknesses 
he had, but why should we remember them in 
our estimate of his well-poised character and suc- 
cessful life. These weaknesses only endeared him 
to sensible men, because they were glorified and 



90 Thomas Dickson, 

transmuted by the excellencies that all knew to be 
precious. He was religiously a straightforward, 
believing sinner, who assented cordially to whatever 
he recognized as God's appointment; and with his 
last breath he expressed his creed in the sentence, '* It 
is all right." It now remains for me briefly to record 
his declining life, and the Christian dignity with 
which he went to his rest. This, with some of the 
testimonials and estimates of character that were the 
chaplets of aflection with which his business asso- 
ciates adorned his tomb, will complete his memorial. 









VI. 



DECLINING HEALTH TRAVELS ABROAD FADES AWAY 

PASSES THROUGH THE TWILIGHT TO 

THE MORNING. 



M" 



DICKSON was never what would be called 
a robust man. Physically, he developed very 
slowly through his boyhood and youth. Light and 
wiry in his boyhood, he began life for himself at so 
early an age that he seems to have been imbedded 
in the memory of his early friends as ^'Little Tom 
Dickson." This impression appears to have been 
carried forward with his after-development, and he 
became stereotyped in the minds of men gener- 
ally, perhaps, as below the standard of the physical 
manhood of the stalwart generation to which he 
belonged. This, however, was a mistake. When 
he reached his manhood he stood about five feet ten 



9» 



92 Thomas Dickson. 

and three-quarter inches in height, and was remark- 
ably straight and well-proportioned, as well as elastic 
in his carriage. Through the first half of his life he 
was blessed with almost uniform good health, and 
certainly had great powers of endurance. A staid 
and indefatigable worker, his life-long habit of spi- 
cing his labors with the luxury of his fun seems to 
have rendered his business life uniformly pleasant 
and healthful. He was able to pass from outdoor 
activity to office confinement with the smallest 
appearance of friction, and he never seemed to carry 
about him any nervous anxiety or bustle of business. 
His powers of endurance and general good health 
seem to have educated him to the neglect of any 
special care of himself in this matter. The multi- 
plicity of his business, the hardness of the work, and 
the dangers of exposure seem to have been seldom 
thought of by himself as elements to be considered 
in his decisions concerning the demands of duty. 
The buoyancy of his nature and adaptability of his 
physical manhood, which we might call his nervous 
force, continued, with few interruptions, down to the 
beginning of the year 1863, when approaching his 
fortieth year. 

In the early part of January of that year, he was 
driven and weighted with more than his ordinary 
business. In addition to the care of the rapidly 
increasing responsibilities of the great company, of 
which he was the chief factor, he was called upon by 



Declining Health. 93 

public officials, and by citizens generally, to aid in the 
perplexities of public affairs which were incident to 
that period of the war. During the whole four years 
of struggle and sorrow in the country he never de- 
clined any service which the exigencies seemed to 
require of him, whether of council or sacrifice. At a 
time when he was in a condition of physical exhaust- 
ion and mental weariness, he was suddenly called 
from his home to a council of patriots in New- 
York. Taking the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- 
ern Railroad to Great Bend, he entered a train on 
the Erie road late at night, and, without observing 
his surroundings, he sat himself down among a 
crowd of Confederate prisoners that had been cap- 
tured in Virginia. This was just after the great bat- 
tle of Fredericksburg. Here in his weariness he fell 
asleep, without thought or care of his fellow-passen- 
gers. As soon as he was discovered by the con- 
ductor of the train he was hurried into another car; 
but it was too late to escape the consequences of his 
exposure. He pushed his business through in New- 
York, and returned home with all speed and without 
rest, but he came from his second night's travel with 
a fever which in a few days developed a genuine 
case of small-pox, which converted his beautiful 
home, for a time, into a pest-house, in which his wife 
was established in all the offices of nurse, steward, 
and cook. After the regular process of the disease 
he came forth with few external signs of the plague, 



94 Thomas Dickson. 

but with a grasp of disease about the valves of his 
heart, from which he was never afterward entirely 
free. He was soon found in the full harness of en- 
terprise and business at his office, but his vigor and 
power of endurance seem to have been visibly weak- 
ened. He suffered from painful and strange attacks 
of exhaustion, shortness of breath, and sensations of 
brain confusion, which to his wife and family became 
alarming. These attacks were not particularly vio- 
lent, and they were at long intervals, which perhaps 
became the more wearing on his general health and 
spirits from the mystery of their cause. This cause 
was only fully and clearly revealed after his death, 
twenty-one years after the first appearance of the 
symptoms. It was the slow and very gradual ossifi- 
cation of some of the valves of the heart. It was so 
gradual, that for at least ten of the twenty years he 
lived after this siege with the small-pox, he did not 
think of himself as really out of health. But his 
great labors gradually told upon his strength and 
elasticity, as became apparent to his best friends. 
He was observed to use his carriage more fre- 
quently, and when he walked he manifested a delib- 
eration and dignity of carriage which could hardly 
be supposed to be the signs of approaching old age. 
Yet these things gave no suggestion of real disease. 
His responsibilities, with the confinement incident to 
his business, after a few years began visibly to wear 
upon his health. After his election to the presidency 



Declining Health. 95 

of the Delaware and Hudson Company his best friends 
began to discern the signs of approaching pros- 
tration, and they begged him to desist and take a 
rest in life's labors ; to cut himself loose from the 
harness in which he had pulled from his childhood, 
and try the effect of general travel. 

Both his reading and his interest in the world's 
condition made these suggestions pleasant to him, as 
he considered them. He turned his thoughts to the 
outer world, with which he had been in more or 
less direct contact through his business, and ex- 
pressed a growing desire to see how other people 
lived, at home. 

The Company at length took the matter seriously 
in hand. They gave him a year's leave of absence 
for travel and recuperation, with the expression, on 
the part of the directors, of their best wishes for his 
restoration to health. So he determined upon a 
tour with his ''guid wife" entirely around the world. 
His eldest son, James P. Dickson, had been for two 
years residing at Hong-Kong, China, and perhaps 
this fact, in good measure, determined the direction 
of his route and the length of his journey. As his 
health had become somewhat precarious, his beloved 
wife became the more constant companion of all his 
travels. Indeed, he became inseparable from her 
after his children had begun to walk alone through 
the world. While he perhaps never acknowledged 
to himself that his mysterious disease had anything 



96 Thomas Dickson, 

to do with keeping her with him, it nevertheless be- 
came very apparent that he wished to be near her, 
whether at home or abroad. In the midsummer of 
1 87 1 he reached his conclusion to make the long 
journey — taking his '*guid wife" to see her boy, as 
he said, on the under-side of the footstool. 

About the first of September, 1871, Mr. Dickson 
left his home in Scranton thus accompanied by his 
wife, going westward to make this tour of the world. 
On the 24th of that month they arrived at San Fran- 
cisco, and sailed from that port in the steamship 
'* Republic," on the 28th, for the port of Japan, and 
from thence to Hong-Kong. In China Mr. and Mrs. 
Dickson were joined by their son, who journeyed 
with them and returned home with them to remain. 
They passed through the chief countries of Asia. 
They traveled through Syria and Palestine on horse- 
back. They climbed the Pyramids of Egpyt, and sailed 
up and down the Nile together. They threaded the 
narrow channels of the historic islands of the Mediter- 
ranean, sailed along the borders of Asia Minor, and 
thence back through the islands of Greece into Italy. 
Here they met friends from home, and with them 
made the tour of Europe, using every sort of con- 
veyance. They passed through Italy and climbed 
the mountain passes of Switzerland. They drove 
through Germany, stopping to drink life-waters from 
the medicinal fountains. They looked into the gay 
life of Paris and the more substantial one of Lon- 




THOS. DICKSON 



1 883. 




MARY MARVINE DICKSON 



1878. 



Declining Health. 97 

don, and then passed northerly through England, 
and reveled among the historic hills and valleys of 
Scotland, in midsummer. They visited all the points 
which had been deem^ed sacred around the fireside 
of the emigrants in the far-off new country, and 
traced the foot-prints of their fathers through Scot- 
land and northern England ; thence they passed 
into Ireland to visit what Mr. Dickson calls ''the 
land where my masters come from," — referring to 
the great number of Irish laborers it had been his 
life-work to employ and to serve. The tour of 
Scotland, Ireland, and England was completed 
toward the end of August, when they sailed from 
Liverpool on the homeward voyage. They arrived 
safely at home on the 27th day of August; thus 
having encircled the earth in just about the space 
of one year. 

During this whole year of travel Mr. Dickson's 
health seems to have improved, and his enjoyment 
to have increased with his progress. From the start, 
he adopted the plan of letter-writing to his family 
and relatives at home, giving thereby an accurate 
account of his travels and impressions. These letters 
were forwarded with business regularity, containing 
accurate pictures of the lands he visited ; but among 
them, ever visible, was the unconsciously-drawn pict- 
ure of the traveler himself. They were written in all 
manner of straits and with every conceivable incon- 
venience, but they were masterpieces of personal 



98 Thomas Dickson. 

correspondence. These letters were preserved, and 
afterward collected and bound in a book constituting 
276 pages, foolscap size. They were never intended 
for publication, but they remain a family souvenir, 
containing a great amount of knowledge, and many 
marks of literary ability, as well as of an accurate 
observation. They are filled with the sparkle of 
their author ; and those who knew him, as they read 
these pages, can see the twinkle of his eyes and hear 
the droll announcement of his observations, whether 
among the Chinese, the Arabs, the Turks, the Italians, 
or Caledonians, as distinctly as if they were with him. 

This year of relaxation proved a great benefit to 
Mr. Dickson in various ways. It enlarged the man ; 
gave him better views of life and of humanity, and 
increased his business capability. But his most inti- 
mate friends were still oppressed with convictions 
that his physical manhood had received a shock 
somehow, and that he would probably never enjoy 
the buoyancy of health which had marked his early 
career. By the time he had crossed the continent 
in his departure, the return of his physical vigor and 
his mental vivacity gave to his friends the confident 
prophecy that restoration and prolonged life lay in 
the line of the travel he had chosen ; and there can 
be no doubt but that his life was prolonged a number 
of years by this timely rest from work. 

September, 1872, found Mr. Dickson again in the 
harness, ready for the greater burdens which in his 



Declining Health. 99 

absence had been taken by the Company. The long 
Hne of railway connecting the Company's coal-fields 
with the Dominion of Canada had been undertaken 
and pushed well on toward completion, and this 
added greatly to his cares and responsibilities ; but 
he took up the additional work without hesitation, 
and completed this international enterprise. This, 
because of the condition of the business of the coun- 
try, led him and the Company into a labyrinth ot 
difficulties through which he struggled for the next 
few years in a way that illustrated his highest busi- 
ness qualities, and out of which he came with an 
illustrious reputation. 

The rapid developments of the country had, through 
a series of years, tended to the extensive enlarging of all 
schemes of business. Corporations which had started 
from small beginnings had become greatly enlarged 
in their operations, and seemed constantly, and in 
some cases unreasonably, to be reaching forth toward 
all schemes of business enterprise. The necessary 
consequence of their success was that they began to 
overlap and entangle each other. Complications of 
business and the clashing of enterprises became fre- 
quent, and general. The whole field of associated 
capital became the more hazardous and perplexed ; 
possibly by reason of the steady increase of the 
financial depression which affected the whole country 
throughout the period from 1872 to 1878. Over- 
production seemed to have accumulated supply far 



lOO Thomas Dickson. 

beyond the proportions of demand, in the market. 
Uneasiness and depression, in time, smote all busi- 
ness circles, and with greater or less power disturbed 
the peace by destroying that confidence among men 
without which successful business is impossible. 
There has been in the history of the industries con- 
nected with the anthracite coal-fields no period more 
trying, nor one in which higher mental and moral 
qualities were demanded, in order to save the great 
corporations from wreck, and successfully carry for- 
ward their enterprises. This was the period in 
which Mr. Dickson demonstrated his highest powers, 
by his adaptability of wisdom and honesty to the 
necessities of the times. 

He had but fairly entered upon his charge, on his 
return from abroad, when this period of long and per- 
plexing trial came upon the Company of which he 
was the president. Here was the exigency under 
which his greatest qualities of mind and heart were 
most distinctly demonstrated ; where both his genius, 
his wisdom and his poise, founded upon his unshaken 
faith, proved of inestimable value. 

It is not the intention of this memorial to write a 
history of these years of the great clash of industries, 
whose causes it would be difficult if not impossible 
exhaustively to trace. Of these I have treated, at 
some length, in the work styled ^*A City's Danger 
and Defense." Here it is enough to say that these 
financial complications culminated in the unparalleled 



Declining Health. loi 

strike of 1877, and the temporary confusion of busi- 
ness throughout the whole nation. For a time the busi- 
ness of fifty millions of people was dependent upon the 
whim of an organized multitude of railway and manu- 
facturing laborers, who, in defiance of law, attempted 
to control the great industries by a concerted strike. 
We will not even attempt to chronicle the exigencies 
of the Company with which Mr. Dickson was iden- 
tified, nor the trials through which it passed as a 
consequence of this strange complication and de- 
pression of values. It is enough to say that this old 
and responsible corporation, for a time, was watched 
by anxious friends much as a ship that is discovered 
among breakers in the fury of the storm, with sails 
torn and ropes broken ; as a ship when the crew and 
subordinates are seen to give more attention to the 
life-boat than to the ship, whose doom seems almost 
certain. But through all the rage of the waters this 
calm, cheerful captain is visible, standing unmoved 
and collected, as the prophecy and assurance that 
the ship shall yet weather the tempest and ride clear 
of the breakers. President Dickson pledged all he 
had in the world to save the Company, with whose 
life the fate of so many widows and children was 
involved ; and then brought to its service all the 
latent powers of his honest nature and versatile 
genius. His wisdom and integrity; his sense of 
justice and his faith in God ; his sympathy with his 
fellow-men of all ranks, and his persevering hopeful- 



I02 Thomas Dickson, 

ness, shone out through all these years ; and they 
leave for us to contemplate the very embodiment 
and expression of a true Christian manliness. His 
plans and his influence swept out silently and per- 
sistently until their power was felt in the whole field 
of the coal and railway industries. ''Patience" had 
*'her perfect work/' and when the high seas subsided 
after the storm, and wrecks were strewn everywhere, 
this master anchored his charge in the haven of suc- 
cess without even the suggestion to the outside 
world that any extraordinary skill or courage had 
been required. He was never known to urge 
any claim for personal recognition because of these 
services. 

But these were years when there was great waste 
of vital energies and expenditure of physical force. 
Mr. Dickson kept up his vivacity and his cheerfulness. 
The world in which he moved saw little change in 
him, save that which was conceived as simply nat- 
ural decay of human life. Some even charged him 
with heartless indifference, because he walked so 
calmly and cheerfully through the ordeal. But his 
loving wife crept nearer to his side under the in- 
creased burden of care and apprehension. Somber 
shadows fell on the inner circles of his friends, who 
thought they discerned him in the grip of some mys- 
terious disease. Through all these years his power 
of will, and his high purpose, kept him in regular 
step with the march of his duties ; but when the day 



Declining Health. 103 

was over he sought more earnestly for quiet, and 
showed his need of rest not to be mistaken. It 
always seemed so easy and so natural for him to 
make everybody happy and cheerful about him ; and 
it seemed so unnatural for him ever to complain, 
that it was not until his end was almost at hand 
that his associates could think him seriously disabled. 
He kept his great work fully in hand up to within a 
few weeks of the close of his life. Yet it was discov- 
ered, after his death, and announced by his physi- 
cians, that ''his life for the last ten, or fifteen, years 
had been haizging upon a thread!' His activity under 
such a pressure of disease was more than a marvel. 
The ossification of the valves of his heart had gone 
on steadily through the course of years, limiting the 
flow of blood in his system, until, when death came, 
an orifice through which a cambric needle could 
hardly be passed was the last channel left for the 
vital flow. 

In the spring of 1883, under the urgency of his 
family, he left his office. For three months he 
rested, and traveled with his wife and some of the 
younger members of his family. With a few friends 
he sailed for Europe in the early part of May. He 
spent the summer chiefly in travel, by private car- 
riage, through England, Scotland, and in different 
countries upon the Continent. This relaxation he 
greatly enjoyed, though constantly burdened with 
physical weakness and suffering. His observation 



I04 Thomas Dickson, 

seemed to be quickened, and his love for his old 
friends seemed to grow stronger as the shadows 
gathered about his life. With his son for his aman- 
uensis, he rested himself from the weariness of his 
travels in writing letters to his old friends at home, 
in which his life-long wit and wisdom flashed out 
with their wonted vigor. 

He returned in the autumn to his post, but took 
hold of his work with a weary and relaxing grasp. 
Through the long winter following he toiled without 
complaint, while his family and friends schemed to- 
gether to relieve him of his heavier burdens, and 
absorb him in the enjoyment of social life, with the 
hope that he might yet find rest, and recuperate. 
But he calmly and hopefully faced the reality of life's 
issues, and silently determined to fall at last in the har- 
ness of business, which had never galled nor fretted 
him. His intellectual force and mental energy never 
seemed to flag, nor to weaken. His wit and his love 
of fun kept full step with his patience and dignity, 
and so continued as long as he lived. When in the 
spring and early summer his physical weakness shut 
him up in his summer home at Morristown, or con- 
fined him to the walks over his beautiful grounds, he 
amused himself and his friends by making his little 
granddaughter his special nurse and equal compan- 
ion. Little Ethel Boies became his matron and 
teacher. She told him when to get up and when to 
retire. Showed him how to put on his clothes in the 



Declining Health. 105 

morniag, when he always seemed to have forgotten 
which side of the garment went before, and which 
behind. With loving patience the little one changed 
for him his shoes, that always seemed to be seeking 
for the wrong feet. She showed him how to shave 
and comb his hair when he seemed always, in a puz- 
zled way, to take the hair-brush for his razor and 
always hopelessly mixed the soap, towels and water. 
He was never too weary to puzzle the child and 
watch her motherly care develop. She became his 
companion, and among the full crop of June roses of 
the Dickson home there was nothing more beautiful 
or enchanting than this mingling of the graces of 
sunset and sunrising. Never was decaying man- 
hood, after a full life ofvigor and success, made more 
beautiful and precious than when thus glorified by 
its mingling with this lovely childhood — a childhood 
which followed it with the patience of love and a 
constantly increasing puzzle of wonder. 

Mr. Dickson still superintended his work in his 
feebleness, and fulfilled the duties of his office with 
the aid of his associates up to July. He continued 
to pass up and down the railway, in answer to the 
claims of duty, with his loving wife at his side, seek- 
ing always to gather and dispense cheerful comfort. 
He visited his children and relatives in Scranton and 
Carbondale in midsummer, and made his last public 
appearance at the marriage of his sister's daughter. 
Miss Mary Fordham, in Scranton. He still walked 



io6 Thomas Dickson. 

erect and greeted his friends with his life-long hearti- 
ness. But he seemed ever conscious of the rapidly 
approaching dissolution. At his last appearance in 
his Scranton office he made his old friend and pastor 
sit down with him at his desk, and for an hour held 
heart-communion with him on the solemn side of the 
drama of life, with its mysterious close in death, and 
its revealed eternity. In it all he spoke with the 
same calmness which characterized his business ac- 
tivity. With simple trust in the Saviour of sinners, 
he said he proposed to walk on until he should fall, 
trusting that, when he did, the good and merciful 
God would take him to the home of eternal rest and 
full satisfaction. 

He returned from his farewell visit to the scenes 
of his youth, and of the responsibility of the riper 
years, to his home at Morristown ; and after remain- 
ing a few days passed up the Hudson, still able to 
do light duties, and hopeful of continued strength. 
While on this visit at the Catskill House he was 
taken suddenly worse, and his attack was aggravated 
by the fact that he was out of reach of his physician. 
With much difficulty he was taken back to his home at 
Morristown. Shrinking from the idea of helplessness, 
he doubtless by his very physical exertions aggrava- 
ted his attack, and hurried on the exhaustion which 
was so rapidly pushing him out of the world. Lean- 
ing on the arm of his old friend, Coe F. Young, he 
even protested that he was giving assistance, rather 



Declining Health, 107 

than receiving it ; and found breath in the very limits 
of his Hfe to cheer this life-long friend and brother. 
Poor Young had to laugh through his tears, while 
Dickson persisted in twitting him with his clumsy 
helplessness and dependence upon the friend he had 
leaned on so lonof. His cheerfulness and his mental 
vivacity were the last signals he left flying in the 
view of his life-long friends who gathered about him. 
His Morristown pastor, Dr. Erdmon, sat down by 
his bedside and found the solid comfort of a soul 
implicitly resting in hope ; and discovered the real 
heart-strength of the Christian, which gave blessed 
token of a coming glory. 

Without a complaint, or disturbed confidence for a 
moment, Thomas Dickson sunk away with the de- 
clining sun of the afternoon of the 31st of July, 1884, 
when, as the evening shadows began to lengthen, he 
passed through the twilight to the morning. Sud- 
denly the ''wheel was broken at the cistern," and 
this noble brother, husband, father, friend — this man 
of successful business, whose life was so precious to 
so many other lives — simply "fell on sleep" and 
" was not, for God took him." He had gathered his 
garments about him and lain down, with Christian 
dignity, to his rest. 



VII. 



VOICES OF THE NIGHT SYMPATHIES OF HUMAN 

BROTHERHOOD FLOWERS WET WITH TEARS. 



THE shock of President Dickson's departure was 
felt, far and near. Through a thousand hearts 
in the fields of life and activity the wounds from 
broken heart-strings showed how he had gathered 
humanity into loving association with himself As 
the sun set and night gathered upon the home 
where the broken-hearted Mary Marvine, with her 
great love, so long his companion, must henceforth 
walk in her widowhood, the pulsations of grief were 
found knocking at every door, laden with tokens of 
sympathy. Families all over the communities where 
they had lived had been watching at the bedside of 
the dying man as, hour by hour, the telegraph and 



zo8 



Sympathy of Brotherhood, 109 

telephone told the story, and the steps, of his de- 
cline. The voices of sorrow trembled and broke 
silently about the stricken household. Here are 
some of these expressions of sympathy and grief, 
which testify of the character of the dying Christian, 
as well as give glimpses into the hearts of those who 
were soon to follow after him. The selection of 
these expressions has been made by Mrs. Dickson 
herself, as mere specimens of the sympathy of human 
brotherhood which flowed in as living streams to 
mingle with the floods of household grief. They are 
but voices of the night sent to cheer and strengthen 
the weary souls that sit in its darkness. They are 
as follows : 



ScRANTON, Pa., July 30, 1884. 

Mr. James P. Dickson, Morristown, N. J. 

My Dear Friend : While I know that both you 
and your father's family are assured of my profound 
sympathy at all times of trouble, I feel to-day that I 
ought to send to you a simple reminder, if, possibly, 
it might make your burdened mother feel just a little 
stronger to bear her burdens to know that she does 
not suffer alone. There is but one sentiment in this 
community to-day, and especially among the people 
that you and I are acquainted with. It is one of the 
deepest sorrows of our life that a man of such excel- 



no Thomas Dickson, 

lence as your father must go away to return to us 
no more. 

Words in such a case as this, and at such a time 
as this, lose all their force, and silence always seems 
to me more potent and becoming than speech. I 
can only say I loved your father with a feeling 
which began in admiration of his honest, manly 
spirit, and was strengthened by every contact with 
him through a long series of years, and which is 
made the more sacred by a deeper conviction of his 
real Christian character. It is a great thing for a 
Christian to live such a life as he has, in the midst 
of such temptations, and under the burdens of such a 
stewardship as he fulfilled. But it is a greater thing 
for a Christian to die than to live. " Precious in 
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." 
Of all the voices of Providence or of the Holy 
Spirit for which your father has listened in the per- 
plexities of an honest, conscientious life, there is not 
one that contains in it so much of unspeakable com- 
fort and joy as that which I presume he shall hear 
to-day, " Well done, good and faithful servant." 

Please assure your mother, on any suitable occa- 
sion, that Mrs. Logan and myself weep with her, and 
'cease not to pray for our dear Lord's presence with 
her in these waters of affliction, for whose depths we 
have no measure. The Lord only can comfort her ; 
and He can do so. 

If your father and my friend is conscious when 



Sympathy of Brotherhood, 1 1 1 

this comes to hand, please give him my undying 
love ; and ask him now and then, in the joys of the 
Father's house, if he shall find room for it, to recall 
this poor sinner, who has been associated with him 
so long, and who hopes to meet him soon on the 
banks of the river of life that flows from beneath 
the throne of our Father. 

If I can at any time be of use in this sorrow of 
your home and house, I will be happy to have you 
command me, with all freedom. Give yourself no 
trouble to acknowledge this note ; it is only the out- 
going of a lonely heart in the day of your trouble, 
and needs no recognition. God bless your mother 
and her children. 

With sincerity and grief I am your and your 

father's friend, c r- t 

' S. C. Logan. 



Whitby, Ontario, Canada, Aug. i, 1884. 

Dear Mrs. Dickson : The sad tidings of your 
bitter bereavement have overwhelmed us with sor- 
row. I only wish I could go and silently mingle my 
tears with those who mourn for him to-day, and per- 
sonally assure you of our deep and tender sympathy 
with you in your grief Your noble-minded, gener- 
ous, warm-hearted husband was very dear to me. 
My heart went out irresistibly toward him. I loved 
him as a brother, and as such I mourn for him. I will 



112 Thomas Dickson, 

cherish his memory while I live, and I pray God I 
may, through riches of divine grace, be permitted 
again to renew our intercourse in that home where 
death never enters. I have been suffering much this 
week, and am better to-day, but my physician en- 
joins quiet. Had I been able to undertake the jour- 
ney I would have gone to Scranton on Monday, as 
my heart prompted. 

May the richest consolations which the gospel of 
Christ presents be yours in this your time of need. 
As your day, may your strength be. Mrs. O. joins 
me in loving sympathy to yourself and kindest re- 
gards to each of the several bereaved households. 
May the God of the Fatherless bless them all. 

Yours very faithfully, 

W. Ormiston. 



Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug. i6, 1884. 

My Dear Mrs. Dickson: The letter from your 
son James which I received last Tuesday ought to 
have prepared me for the worst ; but when I learned 
to-day from Mr. Wood, who has just joined us here, 
that my beloved friend is no more, the blow seemed 
as sudden as if it had come without any warning, 
and I am overwhelmed with sorrow. 

I need not refer to the great loss which the public 
has sustained bv the death of one so honored, trusted. 



Sympathy of Brotherhood, 1 1 3 

and useful in the many Important enterprises with 
which he was connected; nor to the loss of the 
Church by the removal of one who in private life and 
in his prominent public position so honored the doc- 
trine he professed. Still less would I dwell upon 
your own great sorrow. That is too sacred for any 
words of mine. I can only, out of a full heart, com- 
mend you and your dear children to the consolations 
and support of our Heavenly Father. But I may 
speak to you of my own personal loss, which I feel 
to be irreparable. I shall never find another such a 
friend. At my time of life new friendships are sel- 
dom formed ; and then, where could I hope again to 
find a man like him ? Mr. Dickson must have known 
that I respected and loved him, but I can scarcely 
think he knew the strength of my attachment. He 
had many devoted friends, but among them all, I am 
sure there was no one who more lovingly or more 
continuously kept him In grateful remembrance than 
I did. Since he bid me good-by on the deck of the 
steamer last October there have been but few days 
when some loving thought of him has not been in 
my mind, and I cannot now repress my tears at the 
thought that I shall not receive his greeting upon 
my return home. 

But may God give me grace so to live that I shall 
yet receive from my beloved friend ''welcome home " 
when the voyage of life Is ended ; if through Christ's 
love I may reach that blessed and peaceful shore. 



114 Thomas Dickson. 

where your precious boy has already welcomed his 
father, and where, in the joy of God's presence, they 
both wait for you. 

Mrs. Cattell sends her love. She, too, feels the 
sense of a great personal loss in this bereavement. 
Again I pray that our dear Lord may comfort and 
sustain you, and that He may help us all to bow with 
reverent submission to His holy will. 

Faithfully your friend, 

W. C. Cattell. 



These are but a tithe of the great love-expressions 
that came to this stricken household as the night of 
bereavement fell upon it. Heart-expressions of grief 
and sympathy, mingled with honest, manly testi- 
mony to the great and good life just closed, were 
poured into this " house of mourning " by the hun- 
dred from all parts of the country. Weeping women 
wove crowns of glory with choicest flowers to place 
upon his narrow house, and wet them with their 
tears. Devout men in all walks and business of 
life turned aside from their accustomed paths, and 
gathered to bear away his body to its resting-place. 
Strong men, churches, benevolent societies, and great 
organizations, betook themselves to the weaving of 
chaplets of sincere and manly testimony to his excel- 
lence and his genius, with which his tomb should be 
crowned. 



Sy77tpathy of Brotherhood. 115 

The press of two continents, as the telegraph an- 
nounced the departure of his soul, sent forth the 
record and estimate of this man of business whose 
genius had been illustrated by the steady glow of 
Christian manhood, and whose life-work had been 
left unstained, either by schemes of selfishness or acts 
of injustice. As the sun arose upon the busy world 
the vast works, with their countless wheels, which 
Thomas Dickson had set in motion and so long con- 
trolled, paused in respect to his memory ; and it was 
everywhere discovered that the man, lying so still in 
the dignity of his rest, was indeed far greater than all 
his works. He had simply passed through evening 
shadows into a cloudless morning. 




VIII 



At evening time it shall be light." 



CHRISTIAN BURIAL AND THE CHRISTIANS TOMB 



SHADOWS THE ASSURANCE OF LIGHT 



CHAPLETS 



FOR THE WORTHY MANS MONUMENT TEM- 
PORAL AND UNFADING. 



ON the second day of August, 1884, the remains 
of Thomas Dickson were placed upon a special 
train, which had been heavily draped and kindly 
furnished for the use of the family and friends by 
Samuel Sloan, the worthy President of the Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western Railway. A whole train- 
load of old friends from the valley, who had spon- 
taneously gathered, accompanied the family with 
their precious burden, under the leadership of Mr. 
Dickson's confidential friend, Mr. Coe F. Young, and 
his sons. Citizens, business and professional men, 



116 



''At Evening Time it shall be Lights 117 

workmen, and friends in social life, from every walk 
and condition, pressed forward for the privilege of 
showing their affection for their departed associate 
and friend ; and all along the way from Morristown 
to Scranton the deepest symbols of mourning testi- 
fied of the hold that this man had taken on the heart 
of the people. The body was received with tearful 
silence by the citizens of Scranton and taken to the 
Dickson residence, where it remained in state for 
two days, in answer to the demand of the hundreds 
of workmen of all classes, who desired to look on the 
dead face of the man whom they had delighted to 
serve as a friend, while under his employment and 
official direction. 

On the fourth day after his demise the funeral 
services took place from the family residence on 
Washington Avenue, conducted with befitting sim- 
plicity, according, as nearly as possible, with his 
well-known tastes, and desires often expressed. The 
services began at half-past one o'clock. Hundreds 
gathered to the funeral. Not only were the house and 
grounds filled to their utmost capacity, but the side- 
walks and streets for a block or more away were 
packed with those who desired to pay the last trib- 
ute of their respect to this brother beloved. It had 
been announced at ten o'clock in the morning that 
those who desired could view the remains, and for 
more than two hours a constant stream of mourners 
passed through the gates of the Dickson mansion to 



ii8 Thomas Dickson, 

take a last look at his face. Hundreds of employees 
of the Delaware and Hudson and of the Dickson 
Manufacturing Companies were among this crowd ; 
and scores of men who had known him long years 
ago, before he had achieved his life's work or had 
made his great place in society. This procession 
brought tender memories to his intimate friends of 
those heart qualities that had so endeared him in the 
years gone by, and as they passed from the doors not 
a few of these workmen were seen wiping away the 
tears of genuine grief. 

At twelve o'clock the doors were closed and im- 
mediate preparations for the funeral were made ; and 
within half an hour the home was filled with the rel- 
atives and friends of the family. An especial train 
arrived from New- York consisting of four heavily- 
draped coaches, which brought a large party of ladies 
and gentlemen from New York, and Morristown. 
Many more had come from Honesdale, Carbondale, 
Wilkesbarre, and Pittston, on special trains during 
the morning. So that thousands of people had col- 
lected in silence when the time appointed for the 
religious services had arrived. The casket was 
placed in the front parlor of the mansion. On its lid 
were laid palm leaves, the symbols of victory, with 
a very few floral designs and mementos of family 
affection. The funeral services were under the direc- 
tion of his old friend and pastor. Rev. S. C. Logan, 
D. D., of the First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. 



''At Evening Time it shall be Lights 119 

Thomas R. Beeber, pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
Church of Scranton, opened the services with an 
appropriate prayer, which was filled with tenderest 
sympathy, wrought into beautiful sentences, and 
freighted with longings for the Comforter to sanctify 
this bereavement and sorrow to a whole community 
of mourners. The prayer closed with a petition for 
the bereaved household, characterized by singular 
sweetness. A quartet choir of the First Presby- 
terian Church, consisting of Mrs. Charles Watres, 
Miss Emily Piatt, and Messrs. Horace E. and Wm. 
J. Hand, rendered the music with a tearful pathos. 

The following account of these services is taken 
chiefly from the report made by the papers of that 
day, which was recognized as accurate at the time : 

''After the reading of the Scriptures, Dr. Logan 
introduced Rev. Albert Erdman, D. D., pastor of 
the South Street Presbyterian Church at Morris- 
town, N. J., who had ministered to Mr. Dickson in 
his last hours. Dr. Erdman's address was short, 
sympathetic, and elegant. It was especially appro- 
priate by the testimony he gave of the religious faith 
manifested in the last hours of this business man. It 
brouorht lessons of wisdom and comfort to the orreat 

o o 

audience. He spoke in part as follows : ' It is my 
privilege to say a few words only of him for whom 
we all mourn, and toward whom we have so deep a 
regard — to refer briefly to him whose firm Christian 
character and whose traits of manhood so fully won 



I20 Thomas Dickson, 

for him the regard of all who knew him. It has been 
my privilege to know him only through the later 
years of his life ; but it was my special privilege to be 
with him in the last week, which was so trying. It 
was my privilege to be with Mr. Dickson in his last 
hours, when he knew his days were numbered; and 
I stand here to bear to you living testimony of his 
Christian faith throughout his last sufferings. Dur- 
ing his life he held responsible positions among his 
fellow-men — positions which involved care and con- 
stant, absolute attention. Yet, seemingly, he put these 
aside without effort, and reposed his whole trust in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. He manifested neither excitement 
nor alarm, but exhibited a staid trust in his Saviour, 
and in the belief that the everlasting arms would 
surround him when heart and flesh should fail. When 
the hour of trial came his blessed heritage of faith 
was a crowning glory of his useful life. 

I am not here to pronounce a eulogy; and, re- 
membering the character of the man, I know that 
such would not be his wish. His life is his best 
eulogy. But it is fit that this testimony of his trust 
should be given. His death was the beautiful end- 
ing of a noble life. It is hard to understand why a 
life so full of all that was good, so pure and free from 
that which could detract from its completeness, should 
be cut off so soon. But it is a grand solace to our 
hearts to know that Mr. Dickson was able to commit 
all things to his Redeemer. He has left the most 



^^ At Evening Time it shall be Light!' 121 

precious heritage to his friends and to the world, by 
the conspicuous fidelity with which he has worked 
out a stewardship through an honorable and success- 
ful career. 

'' Dr. Logan then gave the funeral address, which 
was a beautiful tribute to Mr. Dickson's memory. 
This address was delivered without notes, and was 
apparently spontaneous. There was about it a pathos 
born of close friendship and intimacy in days gone 
by which could not be reproduced in print ; and there 
were few who listened unmoved to this beautiful 
eulogy. Dr. Logan spoke as follows : 

' If I could follow the feelings of my heart, I would 
sit down in silence to-day among the mourners of 
this smitten household ; one with them in a sorrow 
which finds no true expression in words. To attempt 
to speak of the excellencies of Thomas Dickson 
seems to me much like attempting to publish my 
brother's virtues, which are the sacred home-treas- 
ures of hearts that knew how to love him. But as I 
look over this multitude, composed of all classes and 
callings of men, and remember how my friend took 
hold of the hearts of all who came in contact with 
him, I realize that we are but a very large family of 
mourners, gathered about the fallen tabernacle of 
him who was brother to us all. I am called upon 
simply to speak such words as we all would associate 
with our experience and remembrance of a useful 
and happy life. 



122 Thomas Dickson. 

' It strikes me as an exceedingly difficult thing 
to form, or express, a true and just summary of Mr. 
Dickson's characteristics and powers. God endowed 
him in his creation with such an excellent poise of 
faculties, and sent him on his pilgrimage of life with 
such a balance of powers, that to the great mass 
there was nothing striking or peculiar in him. In- 
deed, there was no excellency so striking to those 
who knew him best as this even poise of traits 
which constituted what we call his character. He 
always stood before us a quiet, full-orbed man, whose 
force we could readily feel and fully appreciate, but 
which we were never able intelligently to explain. 
He no doubt had weaknesses ; but whatever weak- 
nesses he had were so hidden away or neutralized 
by his natural endowments that they made little im- 
pression upon the world in which he moved. A weak 
side doubtless he had, but those who knew him 
never thought of seeking for it in their approaches. 
He was endowed with a clear and quick perception, 
which enabled him to reach his conclusions with a 
rapidity and clearness that seemed like intuition ; and 
to announce his judgments with a completeness that 
seldom needed a revision. With a judgment never 
hasty, but ever controlled by a sense of justice which 
never seemed to be inactive in his soul ; with a will 
inflexible to the purpose when once the end was clearly 
apprehended; a good natural persistence — and a 
wealth of resources seemingly inexhaustible; it is easy 



''At Evening Time it shall be Lights 123 

to see that he was born to be a leader of men. Yet, 
with it all, he had such qualities of heart that he never 
seemed to fail in his appreciation of men with whom 
he either came in contact or collision, in any of the 
various paths and responsibilities of his busy life. 
His social nature spread over all the ruggedness of 
his character, a glow of beauty, and filled him with a 
fountain of joy and fun that made him seem like a 
blood-brother to all kinds of men. The sunshine of 
his heart filled his pathway with scintillations of 
wit, and grotesque pictures of life, which gave both 
strength and elasticity to his steps, under the burden 
of duties ; while his patience and persistence were 
sure, in the long run, to give him the victory. 

* That which strikes us with the greatest force, 
perhaps, as we look over the long and varied life 
which has come to its earthly period, is the complete 
adaptation of our friend to the varied positions and 
circumstances he has occupied. Indeed, his endow- 
ments seem to have made him master of his circum- 
stances. Whether we look at him when as a boy he 
struggled with adversity in the wilderness, having 
the care of a whole family on his young shoulders ; 
or when, as a stripling, with the odds all against 
him, he searched for a path of successful life for him- 
self, we find the same wealth of resources, the same 
perseverance and vivacity of spirit, which filled his 
labors with sunshine and song. As he arose step by 
step through the hard fields of enterprise, and occu- 



124 Thomas Dickson, 

pied almost every station of labor and trust which a 
great company could give, he seemed to occupy each 
niche and position so completely that one might con- 
clude he had been born to it. 

* He showed himself both a leader of men and 
a master of the forces he was appointed to direct; 
whether as a workman in the shop, or as chief direc- 
tor in the chair of honor and responsibility. And 
what was stranger than all this was the fact that 
he seemed to be the same Thomas Dickson, whom 
men of all classes and callings were accustomed to 
call 'Tom,' in all stations and positions. His life 
was crowned with that healthfulness and honest suc- 
cess against which no man complained ; and the ex- 
pressions of his brain, and of his industry, are found 
in most of the grand enterprises which have made 
this whole valley historic. What his force was, as to 
its true measure, no man may say; but the silent 
power of his Christian charity and benevolence, as 
well as of his industry and full-rounded manhood, 
will be felt for many a day yet to come. His schemes 
were laid in truthfulness and justice, and conducted 
with honesty. Hence, their outwork and issues must 
bless and help mankind. 

' How far such a life as this is shaped by the world, 
and how far its achievements are made successful 
through natural endowments, and how far determined 
b^ education, it is impossible perhaps for us to con- 
clude. Mr. Dickson's education was found in the 



''At Evening Time it shall be Light T 125 

school of observation and experience. In an early 
life of poverty and struggle, he undoubtedly learned 
the great principles by which life can be made what 
God intended it to be. I love to think of him as 
the son of that old Scotch Presbyterian elder whose 
theory of education was housed in the single sentence, 
" Fear God and keep his commandments." I believe 
there was nothing in the life of this man more potent 
in determining its issues than the drill which he 
received from his parents in the sound doctrines 
embodied in the Westminster Catechism. His ap- 
preciation of humanity made him a friend of every 
man, and obtained for him the confidence of all 
workers, whether they were with him or under him. 
Hence the workmen were always his friends, and 
believed in him with unquestioning confidence. 

' Illustrations of this confidence in him throughout 
this valley, with whose industries he has had so much 
to do, form an interesting part of its history. I give 
a single instance out of many which are familiar to 
us all, which will show something of the reality and 
extent of this confidence. Years ago the laborers 
in the upper part of the valley had settled upon the 
lands of the company of which Mr. Dickson was an 
employee, and were holding this land by irregular 
titles. This state of things had continued for years. 
At length difficulties arose, and lawyers on both 
sides were puzzling themselves under the cloud of 
two or three hundred lawsuits, when the laborers 



126 Thomas Dickson. 

took the matter in their own hands and came to the 
Company with the proposition that if Thomas Dickson 
would take hold of the matter, with full power to 
act, they would abide by his decision without appeal 
or complaint. The proposition was accepted and the 
settlement was made, and no complaint has been 
heard from that day to this. 

' What would seem in other men to be weaknesses, 
under his sense of justice, charity, and good-nature 
really had the force of virtues. In discussing his 
character the other night with a mutual friend who 
knew him well, I was assured that his native stub- 
bornness always seemed to win for himself friends, 
and never made him permanent enemies. Indeed, 
I think he never lost a real friend. Whatever posi- 
tion he occupied, he carried his associates in his heart, 
and ever seemed to bear them with himself as he 
outstripped them in the race of life. The strains of 
his favorite poet he loved to repeat, and we have all 
heard it, again and again, as the very music of his 
march in life: 

"A man 's a man for a' that, and a' that." 

The humblest of his associates will only learn by his 
departure, how high above them his brains and his 
energies raised him, and always held him. 

* He was a man apparently without moods. He 
seemed never to change. To us he was always the 



^^At Eve7iing Time it shall be Light y 127 

same. Whether we met him in his office, overwhelmed 
with the burdens of business ; on the highways of 
life and of leisure ; or in the home of his rest and 
social enjoyments, he was always the same genial 
soul. There was no watching around office doors to 
find one's self in season to speak to the President 
of the Delaware and Hudson Company. He always 
seemed not only accessible, but actually waiting for 
the humblest man that had business with him. 

'But it was in his Christian home that the best 
characteristics of our friend were manifested. Sus- 
tained by a wife and children who loved as well as 
honored him, he made his home an example which 
men of great schemes would do well to imitate. In 
his house was the church of the living God. It was 
a place where he could not only exercise his literary 
tastes, which were always urging him to another life 
than that which he lived ; but where his rollicking, 
fun-loving nature found its fullest play, and filled 
every life about him with its sunshine. With his 
boundless Christian hospitality, he sanctified this 
house to hundreds of us who are gathered to-day to 
sympathize with its sorrow. Not a corner of it but 
is filled with mementos, to his wife and children, of 
his wit and his healthful home life. 

' But we are here to bury our friend ; and the place 
that knew him shall know him no more. We cannot 
believe that such a life, as this has been, is to pass into 
nothing. A poet has said, **An honest man is the 



128 Thomas Dickson. 

noblest work of God," and we will not dispute it; but 
a Christian man, sanctified through the experiences 
and the duties of a faithful life, is a revelation as well 
as a work of God. Indeed there is only one work of 
God that has ever surpassed it. That is the revela- 
tion of the God-man who is the Saviour of men. The 
faithful Christian, in the lower sense, is ''the Word 
made flesh," to dwell and walk among men ; and 
every sanctified human life is a power, under the 
Divine administration, for the elevation and purifi- 
cation of the race. God will see to it that such a 
life as this, which has passed from sight, shall sweep 
forward with its living potency until the very end 
shall come. The world will always be the better for 
Thomas Dickson's having lived in it. 

* I once stood in a valley of the Alps and watched 
the setting of the sun at the close of a beautiful day. 
Inch by inch the light crept up the mountain side, as 
the day died down in the valley. Long after the 
deepest shadows had fallen where I stood, I saw the 
golden sunlight gilding the peaks with its glory. 
There it hung after night had begun, in the valley; 
not only a memento of the day that was already dead, 
but a prophesy and harbinger of a new day that was 
to come. So it strikes me now as I stand by this 
fallen brother. Such a life as this has its high sun- 
shine as well as its night ; and as we stand at the 
meeting-point of the past and future, it gives us 
the fullest assurance of the coming day, as well as 



''At Everihig Time it shall be Light'' 129 

the precious remembrance of the day that has closed 
and gone. 

" So, when a good man dies, 
For years beyond our ken 
The Hght he leaves behind him lies 
Upon the paths of men." 

* Business men, and brothers ! gathered here to- 
day ; burdened with great schemes, and surrounded 
with innumerable temptations, you must know that 
you, too, shall soon pass away. The places and paths 
that know you now shall soon know you no more. 
Let me ask you, with a brother's earnestness, to seek 
for that anchorage of life which is only found by a 
living faith in an ever-living Redeemer. It was the 
permanent peace and sublime potency wrought by 
this faith which made the life of Thomas Dickson 
blessed and happy through his three-score years ; 
as well as successful in the stewardship which God 
gave him. It was this faith which made his death so 
peaceful and sublime. Every man should make a 
true estimate of himself, first of all, in laying out the 
business of his life ; and that estimate will be found 
more than defective which makes no certain provision 
for death, and the eternity of the soul. Our own 
Christian poet has said : 

" Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime. 

And, departing, leave behind us 

Foot-prints on the sands of time." 



130 Thomas Dickson. 

' But God has told us that he who builds on this 
Gospel foundation which He has laid- — this founda- 
tion of a Christian faith — ''shall never be moved." 
Though such a man shall die, our Lord has said, 
*' Yet shall he live." 

' All the comfort that we can give this household, in 
our deepest sympathy, can amount to very little ; but 
God can comfort them ; and comfort us, as we go 
from this house of mourning to complete our pil- 
grimage of life. Let us, then, commend them and 
ourselves to this grace which can never fail.' 

" Dr. Logan closed his address with an earnest 
prayer for the comfort of the family, and the choir 
sang the sacred hymn, 'Jesus, lover of my soul.'" 

The body was then borne away by the associates 
and co-workers of the dead brother and friend to the 
house appointed for all the living. 

These business associates and friends were : Messrs. 
A. H. Vandling, J. E. Chittenden, E. W. Weston, C. 
D. Hamond, T. H. Voorhees, and Rolin Manville, all 
of whom were connected with the Delaware and Hud- 
son Canal Company. His honorable pall-bearers 
were Hugh J. Jewett, President of the Erie Railway, 
F. S. Winston, President of the Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company, J. R. Taylor and W. H. Tillinghast, 
of the Reading Railroad, Benjamin G. Clark, of the 
Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co., Samuel Sloan, Presi- 
dent of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 



''At Evening Time it shall be Lights 131 

Railroad, Le Grand B. Cannon, of the Delaware and 
Hudson, G. De B. Keim, of the Philadelphia and 
Reading, David Dows, of the Delaware and Hudson, 
and E. P. Wilbur, of the Lehigh Valley Railways. 
These honored and worthy gentlemen walked beside 
the hearse with silent meditation, as real mourners 
of a fallen brother. 

The procession wound its way to the Dunmore 
cemetery between rows of the silent workmen and 
their families, who stood with uncovered heads, filling 
both sides of the street for a full mile and a half; 
and many a silent tear told of the more than mere 
respect for the dead which had gathered the working- 
people to witness these funeral solemnities. 

The remains were conveyed to their last rest- 
ing-place while clouds hung low and threatening ; and 
the heavy-hearted multitude returned to the city with 
silent lips. But as the mourners left the cemetery the 
mists rolled back, and the sun burst from behind the 
clouds ; and a beautiful rainbow arched its prismatic 
colors above the new-made grave, which seemed but 
an emblem and an omen of the beautiful memory left 
by the brilliant achievements, and the unblemished 
purity, that had marked the life, and illustrated the 
career, of Thomas Dickson. 

The bereaved widow and her afflicted children 
had hardly gathered, in their sympathy of sorrow, 
in the deserted homestead, which had preserved so 



132 Thoinas Dickson, 

many precious remembrances of the departed father 
and husband, when Testimonials from the outside 
world began to come to them, filled with sincere and 
graceful assurances of appreciation of the excellence 
of a departed friend, and of touching sympathy with 
his sorrowing family. These testimonials came from 
churches, societies, and business corporations with 
which Mr. Dickson had been associated, and were 
freighted with honest and tender estimates of his 
character and work. Many of these testimonials 
were executed in the richest style of art, and contained 
exquisite manifestations of taste. His associates in 
business and in Christian work chiseled, by these 
parchment rolls, and tastefully-mounted books of 
affectionate testimonial, the graceful monument for 
Thomas Dickson's grave; and thus wove unfading 
chaplets for his memory. Their greatest excellence 
is found in the fact that their truth, and appro- 
priateness, could not be questioned by any who 
knew him. 

I deem It entirely appropriate to close this brief 
record of a worthy life ; this memorial of my excel- 
lent friend, with a few of these testimonials, which 
may be accepted as specimens of the whole, and 
taken as the expression of the thought and honest 
heart-appreciation of that whole world in which he 
wrought; and with which he lived and died in such 
beautiful and profound sympathy. No attempt is 
made to reproduce the beautiful forms In which these 



Testimon ia Is. 133 

testimonials were presented. They will be kept as 
precious heir-looms by children's children. 

They are as follows : 

I. 

The Dickson Manufacturing Company. 

Extract from the Minutes of a meeting of Directors and Stockholders 
of the Dickso7i Manufacturifig Company ^ held in Scra?iton, Pa.^ 
August 1st, 1884. 

THE Directors and Stockholders of this Company 
have learned with great sorrow of the death of 
our associate and friend, 

Thomas Dickson, 

and we desire to indicate upon the minutes of this 
Corporation the following estimate of his character 
and expression of our loss. 

Thomas Dickson was a man of strong native tal- 
ent, elevated tastes, great executive power, firm in 
his convictions and principles; a man of sterling 
honesty, singleness of purpose, broad in his con- 
ceptions, and possessed of high courage and indom- 
itable will. As a man of business he was courteous 
in his intercourse with all men ; successful in all his 
enterprises ; and possessed of that frugality, and en- 



134 Thomas Dickson. 

ergy, which inspired all who were associated with 
him with hope and confidence. 

As a member of this community we testify to his 
public spirit, his generosity and strong friendship, 
which have endeared him to all who have come in 
contact with him, both as employees and as associate 
directors ; and have given him a popularity in all this 
community that is the sure indication of high worth. 

His contributions to and sympathy with all philan- 
thropic enterprises were constant and well timed. 

In all our intercourse with him we have found him 
a man of the strictest integrity, and true to his Chris- 
tian faith and profession. His warmest friends are 
found as well among the poor as the rich. Tears 
fall easily at his bier. The growth of this Com- 
pany, founded by him, and the great business and 
material growth of Lackawanna Valley ; and of large 
corporate enterprises beyond this State, present a 
worthy monument of his character and work. His 
high success from humble beginnings against diffi- 
culties and obstacles are an honor to our American 
INSTITUTIONS, showiug that energy, merit, and true 
ambition will meet their reward. 

We mourn the loss of such an associate and friend. 

We sympathize most deeply with the partner of 
his life and with his family in this their sorrow. 

J. C. Platt, George L. Dickson, 

Secretary. Chairman, 



Tcstimon ia Is. 135 

11. 

The First National Bank of Scranton. 

AT a meeting of the Directors of the First National 
Bank of Scranton, held August 4th, it was 
deemed due to the memory of Thomas Dickson, who 
departed this life on the evening of July 31st, 1884, 
to adopt and place upon record the following minute: 

Thomas Dickson was one of the original corpora- 
tors of this bank, and, up to the time of his death, one 
of its most honored and trusted directors. 

His conservative views and his wise foresight have, 
in all our intercourse with him, impressed upon us 
the conviction that he was ever a wise counselor and 
strong executive officer. 

His deep interest in this institution, and his coopera- 
tion in all measures in its behalf, will ever be a pleas- 
ant recollection to us. 

His constant success in all undertakings, and his 
unbounded integrity, have brought to us that hope 
and confidence which is the life and support of business. 

In times of financial depression his wisdom and 
courage never failed ; in times of prosperity he was 
never carried beyond the line of prudence and safety. 

We feel deeply the loss of his presence in our 
councils. 

The influence of a man of such strength, as he pos- 



136 Thomas Dickson, 

sessed, will long be felt in the business interests of 
this community. It is through such men that institu- 
tions are made stable. 

We bear to his afflicted family our deepest sympathy 
in their trials ; and direct that a copy of this minute, 
signed by the President, and attested by the secretary, 
be presented to them. 

Attest : J. A. Linen, Joseph J. Albright, 

Secretary, President. 



III. 

The Moosic Powder Company. 

AT a special meeting of the Directors of the Moo- 
sic Powder Company at their office in Scranton, 
Pa., at 8 o'clock, p. m., August 4th, 1884, to take 
action commemorative of the death of Thomas Dick- 
son, one of the founders of the Company ; for many 
years an active director in its management ; and al- 
ways its earnest friend and wise counselor, H. S. 
Pierce was made Chairman and E. W. Weston 
Secretary. 

It was Resolved, That, while bowing in submission 
and sorrow to that dispensation of an overruling 
and all-wise Providence, which removed from us by 
death, on the evening of July 31st, 1884, ^^^ friend 
and associate, Thomas Dickson ; we, as a body, de- 



Testimon ia Is. 137 

sire hereby to place on record our high appreciation 
and esteem of him as an associate, and a man, and 
our grief at his loss ; and to bear tribute to his mem- 
ory, which shall ever be cherished by us, and held 
dear and sacred. 

Thomas Dickson was a man whom to know was 
to love; with whom to be associated was to honor 
and respect ; a man of noble and generous impulses, 
whose aim was ever to promote the welfare and hap- 
piness of his fellow-men ; always ready to lend a 
listening ear, to give a helping hand, an encouraging 
word, and a sympathizing heart, to the worthy. 

He was a man, foremost in every good work, '* given 
to hospitality," ''diligent in business, fervent in spirit, 
serving the Lord." Of quick perception, of remark- 
able clearness and grasp of mind; of sound and un- 
biased judgment; he was always a trustworthy friend 
and adviser. A man of high social qualifications and 
attainments, courteous, unselfish, and affable in his 
nature and in all intercourse with those with whom 
he was brought in contact; of strict integrity, hon- 
orable, and above suspicion in all his dealings. Firm 
and decided in his convictions ; confident and cour- 
ageous in his undertakings ; he was fearless and un- 
hesitating in the discharge of every duty. 

We mourn his loss to us, to this community, and 
to the world, as creating a void that cannot be filled. 

To his bereaved wife and afflicted family we give 
assurance of our heartfelt sympathy in this dark hour 



138 Thomas Dickson, 

of grief and sorrow, and pray that Heaven's choicest 
blessings may rest upon and attend them. 

A copy of this resolution shall be presented to the 
family and entered on the minutes. 

E. W. Weston, H. S. Pierce, 

Secretary. Chairman. 

IV. 
The Crown Point Iron Company. 

AT a meeting of the Board of Directors of the 
Crown Point Iron Company, held at their office 
in New York Nov. 25th, 1884, the following was 
ordered placed upon the minutes : 

It is with the deepest sorrow that we record upon 
our minutes the death of our friend and co- Director, 
Thomas Dickson, Esq. He was one of the corpora- 
tors of this Company, and was ever most warmly in- 
terested in its success. 

Faithful in the discharge of every duty, and guided 
by a sound judgment, we mourn his death as an hon- 
ored friend, as well as a valued adviser. 

His memory will be cherished by us with deep 
regret for his departure, and ever- affectionate regard ; 
and we desire to extend to his family the warmest ex- 
pression of our sympathy in their great bereavement. 

L. G. B. Cannon, 

President. 

New- York, Dec. 8th, 1884. 



Testimonials, 139 

V. 

Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. 

AT a special meeting of the Board of Managers 
of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
held at the office of the Company on Saturday, August 
2d, 1884, to take action in regard to the death of their 
late president, Mr. Thomas Dickson, the following 
preamble and resolutions were adopted : 

With unfeigned sorrow the Board of Managers of 
the- Delaware and Hudson Canal Company record 
upon their minutes the following tribute of their 
respect for the memory of their friend and associate, 

Thomas Dickson, 

who departed this life on the 31st of July, 1884. 

He was born in the year when action was taken 
for the formation of this Company, and he was in its 
service from his youth. 

He became its Superintendent in i860; in 1867 he 
was appointed Vice-President; in 1869 he was elected 
President, and filled that office until the time of his 
death. His life was thus identified with the Com- 
pany's progress. With every detail in its working that 
life was wrought out, and it unfolded with every step 
in its development. His advancement was in its pros- 
perity, and its reverses came home to him with perhaps 



140 Thomas Dickso7i. 

more of nearness than any personal loss. Such unity 
of interest with the institution to whose service he 
was devoted marked him out as the man to whom 
the highest office in its gift would necessarily fall. 

Being invested with it, he adorned his Presidency 
by bringing to bear upon its duties the whole weight 
of a rare condition of mental and moral endowments. 
With all the cordiality and loyalty of his nature, he 
carried out the broad policy of development which 
had marked the administration of his predecessor in 
the office, and with which he had always been in gen- 
erous sympathy. To insure the success of his noble 
work, he was furnished with an intellectual strength, 
a faculty of rapid and accurate judgment, a power to 
grasp and arrange multifarious details, and an intui- 
tive knov/ledge of men, which, together with his im- 
mense power of will, communicated a unity and a 
momentum to his endeavors that compelled universal 
respect. 

In the discharge of his official duties he showed a 
calm reserve and a clearly-defined high purpose of 
well-doing, which betokened the real greatness of his 
character; while in his personal relations, as their 
chief, with his fellow-servants of the Company of every 
grade, he won their admiration by the quiet amenity 
and noble consistency of his life. 

Perhaps no exhibition of his great power to influ- 
ence others was more marked — certainly none was 
more honorable — than that which was brought out 



Testimonials, 141 

on occasions of controversy with other Companies. 
In the composition of these his breadth of view in 
suggestions of poHcy, his judicial moderation in pre- 
senting the claims which he represented, and his 
manifest anxiety to reconcile the interests of all, upon 
a foundation of justice to all, led many, who have 
admired his course, to regard him as the peace- 
maker among his fellows ; and in the limited time 
since his death more than one of these companies 
have referred to this trait of his character. But 
in all the relations of life, private as well as official, 
he was the same highly-esteemed, respected, hon- 
ored, and beloved man. And while, in the expression 
of our sorrow, we spread upon these records our 
testimonial of regard for our departed friend, we 
are reminded of the weightier burden of grief of 
those whose relations of love and kindred bring 
home to them a greater poignancy of suffering. Be 
it therefore 

Resolved, I. That the Board of Managers of this 
Company tender to the family of Mr. Dickson the 
assurance of their deepest sympathy in a bereave- 
ment which will be felt far beyond the limits of the 
home where he was so tenderly beloved. 

Resolved, II. That this Board will attend the 
funeral of Mr. Dickson on the 4th inst, and will 



142 Thomas Dickson, 

direct the various offices of the Company to be closed 
on that day. 

Resolved, III. That the foregoing minute be adopt- 
ed and spread upon the records, and that an en- 
grossed copy thereof be transmitted to the family 
of Mr. Dickson. 

F. M. Olyphant, 

Secretary. 



VI. 

Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

AT a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of 
The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New 
York, held August ist, 1884, the president addressed 
the Board as follows: 

Gentlemen: I announce, with sincere regret, the 
death of another Trustee of this Company — 

Thomas Dickson. 

He died at Morristown, N. J., last evening, July 
31st, of disease of the heart. 

He was born in Berwickshire, Scotland, and at his 
death was sixty years of age. 

Mr. Dickson was elected a Trustee of this Company 
November 19th, 1873, and has served, most intelli- 



Test WW ?i ia Is. 143 

gently and acceptably, as a member of the committees 
on Insurance Agencies, Mortuary Claims, and Nomi- 
nations. Each of these committees will miss his dig- 
nified and courteous presence, his practical knowl- 
edge and sound judgment, in their deliberations and 
acts. The executive officers will miss his kind interest, 
and wise counsels, in the affairs of the Company ; and 
not less his personal sympathy and friendship. Other 
members of the Board, who have been associated with 
him, here and elsewhere, and knew and appreciated 
his sterling character and worth, will now address 
you ; and will furnish a more fitting testimonial of the 
appreciation of this Board for our late Trustee, and 
their sincere sympathy for his family in their great 
affliction. 



Hon. John E. Develin said: 

Mr. President: The heavy affliction which has 
fallen upon us almost deprives me of the ability to 
speak in regard to it. Mr. Dickson rose from the 
ranks by a wonderful mental power — a gift from 
above. By great industry, integrity, and honesty, he 
elevated himself to one of the most prominent and 
influential positions in the country. After he became 
a member of this Board, his activity, his attention to 
its affairs, and his conscientious discharge of his 
duty were marked by all his associates. 

His loss to the Company is a great one. 



144 Thomas Dickson. 

Mr. Sewell read the following resolutions and moved 
their adoption : 

Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God in his Provi- 
dence to remove from his earthly sphere our late 
fellow-member of this Board of Trustees, 

Thomas Dickson, 

Be it Resolved, That this Board have heard the sad 
intelligence with deep regret, and that we avail our- 
selves of the earliest opportunity to make an expres- 
sion of our sorrow. 

Our deceased friend was a man of ripe experience, 
sound judgment, positive convictions, and decisive 
will, while his honesty and integrity were above the 
shadow of suspicion. In every position where his 
good sense, business experience, and unquestioned 
integrity, had placed him (and these qualities made 
him sought after by many), he discharged the duties 
intrusted to him with diligence, prudence, careful 
attention to all the necessary details, and a sagacity 
which was the result of his training and his long 
identification with large business interests. Whether 
as the executive head of a great Railroad, Canal and 
Coal Company, a Trustee of this Corporation, or a 
simple citizen of the Republic, he was ever solicitous 
to discharge his duties with zeal, intelligence, and a 
conscientious regard for the rights of all persons who 
might in any way be interested in the trusts over 



Testimonials, 145 

which he was called upon to preside. In this Board, 
as a member of it, and of several of its important 
committees, his loss will be deeply felt, and is feelingly 
deplored. But while we sorrow over his bier we per- 
mit ourselves to take pardonable pride in the record 
of his pure life, of his duties fulfilled, and of his work 
completed ; while we sincerely desire to join with 
our deceased brother in the good hope which he en- 
joyed of a glorious immortality. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be inscribed on the 
minutes, and copies thereof be sent to the family of 
the deceased gentleman. 

This motion was seconded by Mr. George S. Coe, 
by Mr. Julian T. Davies, and by Mr. Frederic Crom- 
well. 



Mr. Coe said: 

Mr, Chairman : The circumstances of this day 
remind me very strongly of the position in which we 
all stand. Mr. Dickson was a member of the Com- 
mittee on Mortuary Claims, of which I am also a 
member. The duties of that committee vividly 
bring before us the fact that we stand, as it were, 
upon the confines of two worlds. If we are not re- 
minded by our official duties in connection with that 
committee of our own mortality, we are certainly 



146 Thomas Dickson. 

impressed by the dropping away of our associates 
in such numbers. Mr. Dickson, as a member of this 
committee, was very attentive, very kind, and every- 
thing he did was always most acceptable. He dis- 
charged his duties with great intelligence and great 
wisdom, and we most sincerely regret to lose him. 
I can only add that I heartily concur in everything 
that has been said, and I join all the members here 
in sincere regret at his death. 

Mr. Davies said : 

Mr. President : I had not an intimate acquaintance 
with Mr. Dickson, but I had marked his presence at 
this Board. The intercourse that I had with him in 
connection with the performance of duties, as Trustees 
of this Company, was principally in the examination 
of the securities of the Company. I remember being 
very much struck by the care, and accuracy, he dis- 
played, and the fidelity with which this gentleman, 
who presided over public enterprises of vast impor- 
tance ; who was President of one of the greatest 
companies connected with the coal interest of this 
country ; and whose private interests were so large, 
attended, day after day, and hour after hour, with 
his own hands counting securities ; examining their 
denominations, and going through all the minute 
details of a careful, personal examination of the 
assets of this Company. And it seemed to me as if, 



Testimon ials. 147 

in the care with which he performed the details of 
these duties, was to be found the secret of Mr. Dick- 
son's success in life. Every duty, doubtless, that 
came to his hand, whether great or small, was 
performed with equal fidelity. In manner he was 
courteous and considerate. For all of us he had a 
pleasant greeting ; and even a slight acquaintance 
with him could not fail to leave upon the mind a 
pleasant and enduring impression. We have lost 
from this Board one of its most valued members ; a 
man whose place it will be very hard to fill. 

Among the gravest acts that fall upon this body, 
and upon the more experienced members of it, is the 
filling of the places of these really great men who 
have passed away. Certainly, one of the greatest 
minds that I have known in this Board left us on the 
death of Mr. Dickson. 



Mr. Olyphant said : 

Mr. Preside7it and Gentleme7i: It seems hardly 
necessary to say more than has been said ; but I have 
known Mr. Dickson as a friend from my early boy- 
hood, and my feelings prompt me to add a few words. 
A good man has passed away. Wherever Mr. Dick- 
son's lot was cast he had the respect of the commu- 
nity around him, while those who were allowed to 
come into the nearer relations of friendship, came to 
love as well as to respect him. His calm yet vigor- 



148 Thomas Dickson, 

ous intellect was given with untiring devotion to the 
company over which he presided ; yet we know here 
how unselfishly he gave his time, and the remains of 
strength, to help forward the prosperity of this great 
corporation. Whatever he did he desired to do well ; 
for his estimate of duty was very exacting. His last 
sickness came upon him suddenly. Rest was needed, 
but the man hitherto strong and active could not be 
convinced of this necessity. He pressed on, prefer- 
ring, as it seemed, to die in harness rather than to 
rust out. In his home, surrounded by all that was 
attractive, and deeply mourned as husband, father, 
brother, friend, he passed away. We cannot lift the 
veil from the mystery of such a Providence. We 
must leave it where our friend left it, and trust that 
when our time comes to follow him we may be able 
to say, and feel, as he said, just before he passed 
away — his last words — '* It is all right." 

The resolutions were thereupon adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Develin, the President was au- 
thorized to select a delegation to attend the funeral, 
at Scranton, on Monday, the 4th instant. 

Mr. Andrews, who was in Canada when he heard 
of Mr. Dickson's death, telegraphed the following as 
his tribute to the memory of the deceased : 

Mr. Dickson's mental qualities were singularly well 
poised. Possessing ability of the highest order, it 



Testimonia Is. 149 

was sweetly tempered by modesty. Quick in reach- 
ing conclusions, he was never rash. A rigid disci- 
plinarian, he avoided harshness in reproof. Earnest 
in expression, he was considerate of the feelings of 
those from whom he differed. Deeply religious, he 
shunned the appearance of austerity. Trained in a 
school where self-assertion was a merit, he never 
lost the quality of diffidence. Indeed, in all the attri- 
butes of his mind he approached in a marvelous de- 
gree to the ideal of that rarest of characters — 

A Christian Gentleman. 



At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Trustees 
the President made the following report, viz. : 

To fulfill the duty you laid upon me, to aid in pay- 
ing the last rites of sympathy and respect to our late 
associate and friend Thomas Dickson, I attended his 
funeral at the city of Scranton, with Mr. Holden, 
Mr. Olyphant, and Mr. Henderson of our Board of 
Trustees, on Monday, August 4th. The family resi- 
dence was filled with Mr. Dickson's personal friends 
and neighbors, while a much larger number of them, 
who could not find room, remained at the entrance 
and in the streets near the house until the services 
were ended. 

The cemetery was two miles distant. As the long 
funeral procession wound its way through the valleys, 
over the hills, and past the open shafts leading to the 



150 Thomas Dickson, 

mines beneath them, the busy scenes of our friend's 
early life and labors, and of his subsequent history, 
were spread out before us. On the roadside, at short 
intervals, stood large crowds of men, women, and 
children, from the various workshops and mines, with 
uncovered heads, watching with sad, sympathetic 
eyes, the remains of their cherished friend passing to 
their last resting-place. No funeral pomp or studied 
eulogy could so eloquently, and touchingly assure us 
of the place he filled in the hearts and minds of the 
people, as the mute sorrow expressed in every coun- 
tenance ; as the multitude watched this procession on 
its way to bury their friend out of their sight. From 
the entrance at the cemetery to the open grave, the 
path, and the ground around it were covered with 
evergreens and flowers, on which his chosen friends, 
who had borne his body to its last earthly home, 
placed the coffin. Then, as they reverently depos- 
ited the body in its narrow resting-place, they sung 
with sweet melody these touching words : 



" Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb, 

Take this new treasure to thy trust ; 
And give these sacred relics room 
To seek a slumber in the dust. 

Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear 
Invade thy bounds — no mortal woes 

Can reach the peaceful sleeper here. 
While angels watch the soft repose. 



Tcstimo7i ials. 151 

So Jesus slept — God's dying Son 

Pass'd thro' the grave and blest the bed : 

Rest here, blest saint, till from his throne 
The morning breaks to pierce the shades. 

Break from his throne, illustrious morn : 
Attend, O Earth ! his sovereign word ; 

Restore thy trust — a glorious form 
Called to ascend and meet the Lord." 



And so we committed his body to the ground, 
''earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," in full 
hope of that day when this body shall be changed 
and made like to '' His glorious body," who burst the 
bonds of death, and brought ''life and immortality to 
light," for all those who believe in Him. 

It seems strange to us to see a man of wisdom and 
strength, of purity and power, while intently and with 
his whole heart fulfilling, to the utmost, his wide and 
weighty duties to his God, and his fellow-man, thus 
stricken down in the meridian of his life and labors ; 
with so much to do, and so much undone. So he 
once thought, till he received his death-bed lesson 
of filial trust in his Heavenly Father ; then he had 
faith to exclaim, in these his last words while in the 
agonies of dissolution, "It is all right," and thus 
passed to his eternal rest. 

An extract from the minutes. 

(Signed) Richard A. McCurdy, 

Vice-President and Ex-Officio Secretary to the Board. 



CLOSING WORDS. 



THE mystery of human life Is never more impress- 
ive than when we pause to consider the void, 
and the adjustment of forces, which its earthly com- 
pletion has demanded. There is, first, a solemn halt 
in the tread of toil, when a great worker falls, then a 
walking softly for a time, as if the listeners had learned 
the cause of the shock, and then follows a passing on 
in solemn meditation to complete the work required. 
There is hardly visible the turning of a hair's breadth 
in the trend of the world's Hfe, or in the march of men, 
by the fall of the greatest of men. The business world 
moves on as if little dependent upon the individuals 
that determine its control ; and we wonder at it. But 
there can, perhaps, be no more forceful testimony 
given to the completeness of the earthly life, or the 
faithfulness of the stewardship, of any marked worker 



152 



Closing Words. 1 5 3 

in business schemes than the leaving of all trusts 
without shock or derangement. The levers and pul- 
leys, the cogs and springs, of the great machine must 
have been both accurately and wisely adjusted, if they 
run on, without friction, after the master-hand that 
invented, and ever controlled, them has been suddenly 
removed. Such is the testimony which was given 
to the completeness of the earthly stewardship of 
Thomas Dickson. The diameters of his power, and 
the circles of his varied influence were so wide, and 
decided, that the business world wondered what 
might be the result of the surrender of his trusts and 
of his departure from the world. But it was found 
that the master-mind had so wisely adjusted his 
machinery, and balanced his industries, and had so 
faithfully wrought out his designs, that little remained 
unfinished. His offices and his beautiful homes were 
left as types of his life, as well as of his completed task. 
From foundation to cap-stone every part was in its 
place; all things finished and furnished to their ends; 
henceforth subject simply to the wear and tear of 
time. His chapter in the world's life and history, 
whether adjudged long or short, great or small, was 
completed ; and henceforth must stand, in the memory 
of his associates, in its striking symmetry and mani- 
fold excellence. 

So complete was his life that the social circle of 
which he was the center, and the household of which 
he was the life, moved on along the lines of his ap- 



154 Thomas Dickson. 

pointment, hardly realizing his departure. His quiet, 
masterly spirit, his modest gentleness of dignity, 
his genial sunshine and sparkling humor, lingered so 
vividly in all the paths of his work, and his resting, 
that his wife, his children, and his intimate friends 
walked on as if still in his company, ever and anon to 
be startled with the fact that comes with its benumb- 
ing force to assure them that he has entirely out- 
stripped them, and now walks in a sphere higher than 
human vision can reach. He has passed through and 
beyond the shadows to the cloudless morning, leaving 
the last echo of his voice, '' It is all right," to cheer 
and strengthen our faith with the signal as from the 
other shore. 

But he has also left the marks of his genius, and 
character, in all the paths of his pilgrimage ; deeply 
carved on all his great and beneficent works ; and 
with these would he draw us onward, and ever up- 
ward, to the gladness of the coming meeting. 

For the purpose, if possible, of deepening these 
marks, and clearing them of the mosses that time 
weaves to cover and deface them — after the manner 
of Old Mortality, who chiseled anew the tomb in- 
scriptions of the Scotch Martyrs — has this Tablet 
been written. In the awkward scratches and mani- 
fest imperfections may be readily discerned the inex- 
pert and uncertain hand of the artist; but these must 
be ignored by all who would see the excellence, and 
feel the force, of the original inscriptions. Whatever 



Closiiig Words. 



155 



may be the defects that mar the tablet, they can 
hardly obscure, if they do not actually reveal, the sin- 
cerity and affectionate aim of the rude chisel. This 
whole Household Tablet has been wrought under the 
solemn conviction that such a many-sided man — such 
a husband, father, and friend — deserves to be held 
in perpetual remembrance. May the shadow of his 
excellence ever fall upon his children's children as the 
benediction of the blessed. 






